Irony
by HarmonyRose
Summary: Sakura was strong now, she was no longer weak. The thing was no one knew. It was all kind of ironic, but that was the way her life worked.
1. Chapter 1

Hey readers! I am currently changing this to third person and fixing some spelling and grammar mistakes. So part of the story is in third person and the rest is in first. Please just bear with me. 

Disclaimer: Do you think I own Naruto? That's what I thought.

Irony

Chapter One: The bet 

Haruno Sakura was strong now. She was no longer the weak pathetic kunoichi of team seven. She hadn't deserved the title of Kunoichi before but, now she could smash through walls with a just a flick of her finger and bring someone from the brink of death securely into the land of the living. The thing was no one knew except Tsunade, who was the fifth Hokage, and her former teacher. It was no good to Sakura she had the abilities but, lacked the field knowledge to effectively utilize them. It was all kind of ironic, Sakura had spent 3 years trying to prove she was strong, but after her first encounter with Uchiha Sasuke after he left for the twisted Snake Sannin, Orochimaru, she realized that she was still too weak and that made the rapidly maturing teen angry.

When Sakura came back to Konoha after her mission she stepped into the hokage's office. She had been into the Hokage's office many times before, so the scenery was familiar. She didn't have to look to know that Tsunade had hidden sake bottles everywhere, that the book selves were filled with books of medical techniques and Konoha's laws, and that the paperwork on the desk was at least three weeks behind. Only once before had Sakura ever come into the office this resolute, and that had been the first time she had decided she was going to apprentice under the greatest medical ninja at the time, Tsunade herself. She made a deal with Tsunade. She asked the Godaime to give her six complete months off to reach ANBU level and if she could manage to make it that far then she would work as a medic in the hospital on weekdays and work anonymously for Konoha as an ANBU operative in the evenings and on weekends. Tsunade didn't believe that her apprentice could drastically improve in only six months. 

It was impossible and Tsunade was about to refuse Sakura's request, when her medical prodigy raised the stakes. She challenged her mentor to a bet, something Sakura knew she wouldn't be able to able to refuse, her sensei loved to gamble. However, she has the longest losing streak in all five hidden villages. She wasn't called the Legendary Sucker for nothing. The terms of the bet were that if Sakura passed the ANBU exams after her six months of self instructed training then the Godaime would agree to agree to her proposal, but if Sakura lost she would take over Tsunade's hospital duties in addition to her own, as well as keeping the Hokage's paperwork up-to-date for a year. Tsunade thought that there was no way she could lose this bet so she cackled madly and shook on it. However, Sakura knew something she didn't at the time. She had a kekkai genkai and activated it for the first time the day before.

Sakura spent the next six months training extensively alone. In the first month she worked 14 hours a day only stopping to only rest and eat to perfect her kekkai genkai. Her medical training helped with this, with it she was able to fully discover the intricacies and capabilities of her doujutsu in a single day. All she had to do was send a tendril of chakra through the nerve pathways into her activated eye technique and decipher the information gathered. Sakura worked extensively to perfect it for the next month, until she was satisfied with the result. During that month she also decided to work on her lacking stamina, so she began running multiple laps around Konoha first thing after breakfast each morning.

The second month the kunoichi worked on ninjutsu, her weakest style of fighting. She decided to work on stealthier jutsus as well as boosting the over-all repertoire of her jutsus. Luckily for her, her new bloodline limit and natural chakra control allowed her to be able to master ninjutsus the first or second time through them. Another aspect that was improved was her overall speed and the rate at which she could form the combinations of hand seals. During the second month she continued to work to strengthen her physical and spiritual energy. She learned over a hundred new jutsus that month. Not really comparable to the her former sensei, the copy nin but, she didn't have the sharingan. Some of the jutsu were powerful enough to kill an opponent if the jutsu merely touched the skin others were just helpful defensive tactics.

The third month Sakura worked on weapons skills. She went to her parents' old abandoned house. In the attic Sakura found her grandfathers old weapons. Her Grandfather was supposedly the last Haruno that possessed the kekkai genkai. The weapons set included an old Katana. It was wrapped carefully in red satin that was tied with a silky matching cord. Sakura unwrapped it and smirked, the sword was still in perfect condition. The silver was untarnished and gleamed brightly in the sun that shone through the small window at the end of the small room and contrasted the dark of the hilt. 

The hilt itself was adorned with twisting silver as decoration and protection from enemy attacks. The short sword and dagger that accompanied the Katana were similarly adorned. Working with weapons was probably going to be the hardest part of training, because Sakura knew absolutely nothing about them, so she picked up scrolls about proper sword training and various instructions of many Katas from the library. It took extensive training to be adept enough in weapons that Sakura felt confident enough that she could beat even Sasuke's lightening blade, without the lighting of course that would be just dumb. Even though the kunoichi had no previous experience with weapons it seemed that swordplay came natural to her. Sakura continued to work all her previously learned techniques into everyday practice.

In the next month her stamina training really helped since she started brushing up on her taijutsu (the training with Tsunade was mostly taijutsu, so Sakura didn't have as much room for improvement). Sakura was able to practice for longer and her speed was greatly increased, meaning she could flick an enemy through a tree before they knew she had moved. She wasn't sure if her newly gained speed was because she had tapped into a kekkai genkai or if it was the stamina and speed training she had opted for. Either way Sakura was certain Tsunade was going to lose, especially since she had opted to learn advanced Taijutsus as well. Attacks only Gai and Rock Lee, the Taijutsu specialists of Konoha, had used or bothered to learn. 

It was also important for her to learn to channel that monstrous strength to her feet so that she could crack up the ground by tapping her heel. Since, it was apparent that taijutsu didn't warrant an entire month to excel in Sakura started on improving in medical jutsus. This was the one subject she excelled at before her self-enforced improvement. Her medical jutsu was at the same level of Tsunade herself. Then Sakura saw the values of incorporating medical jutsus with Taijutsu, because now medical jutsu could also be offensive. It might not possible to see where each individual chakra point was without the byakugan of the Hyuuga clan, but that didn't mean that those points couldn't be memorized That wasn't the only thing medical chakra was good for either, it also could sever body parts and send bodily systems into chaos.

Genjutsu was the final battle tactic to perfect. Sakura made up several new genjutsu, and learned many that were useful for different scenarios. She trained with a shadow clone to help recognize common genjutsus and develop a new technique to break out of layered or powerful genjutsus, that otherwise wouldn't be possible to break out of in a single motion.

The final month had originally been planned on working to combine all the diverse fighting styles the she had mastered. However, she added a twist at the last minute, an idea she had been toying with, she decided that not only would she combine her skills, but would do it by wearing a blindfold during the training and morning runs. The first few days Sakura had to heal many wounds, but halfway through the month she became as good with the blindfold as she was with normal vision, and by the end preferred fighting that way because it honed the senses and created fewer distractions. For instance color or light didn't bother her, and it was easier to spot a genjutsu if she knew she wasn't supposed to be seeing anything. Besides with her sensitive senses, it was simple to detect the slight change of atmosphere when a genjutsu was cast.

So, six months to the day after the bet, Sakura showed up in Tsunade's office dressed in her standard pink skirt, black shorts, gloves, and red top, along with her newly acquired swords and blindfold, tucked away in a back pocket. "Konichiwa, Tsunade, I am ready to take the test now."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't and will probably never, ever own Naruto.

Chapter 2: Exam

"Are you ready Sakura? No offense you have been my fastest learning apprentice so far but..."

When Tsunade started talking Sakura activated her bloodline limit and her eyes turned blue-gray. "But, you don't think I could have progressed to ANBU level in so little time, even with the best of teachers. Is that exactly how you were going to finish your sentence?"

Tsunade frowned and started to answer, "N.."

"Don't even say no because that's exactly what you were going to say, word for word. Now your going to try to deny it, but Tsunade-sama look at my eyes," Sakura interrupted before she could finish.

"What does that… oh" she said when she saw the other ninja's changed eyes.

"When did that happen and what do they do?" she asked surprised and curious now.

The Rosette woman grinned mischievously, "The day before the bet and as with all the eye kekkai genkais it improved my speed, allows me to see chakra, and increases my chakra capacity. The advantage of my bloodline limit over others is that I am able to see into the future, at least 10 seconds for something of a larger magnitude and for small things I can see about a day into the future."

"Are there any drawbacks or restraints to your bloodline limit, Sakura?"

"The only restraint I know of is, I have to know generally what I'm looking for, but I can't really ask about it because, the last known member of the Haruno clan to have this Kekkai Genkai was my grandfather. I am the last of the Harunos since my parents died last year, so I can't even get second hand information." Sakura said as she turned off her kekkai genkai. "So, Tsunade-sama, are you going to let me take the exam?"

"Yes, would you rather take it today or tomorrow?" asked the Hokage.

She paused for a minute and checked her chakra reserves as well as her level of awareness and replied, "Today is fine." Sakura paused for a minute, "Tsunade, you understand what I want if I pass, right? I don't want anyone to know. I just want to work anonymously nights and weekends and keep my facade of being a medical-nin up. I want to protect my friends, and to do that no one can know who I am or else I will be targeted because I am a kunoichi and our enemies tend to think of us as easy targets and are able to manipulate our male counterparts to try to save and protect us. That can't happen to any of my teammates. They are all too famous and noble enough to try and save me. So, if it isn't possible to keep anonymous, then I can't take the test or the risk."

Tsunade's eyes softened and she looked affectionately on her apprentice. "Don't worry Sakura we can keep your status hidden so that only Shizune and I know. However, first you have to pass the test," she joked on a lighter note.

"Hai I will," Sakura said determinedly as Tsunade led her to the ANBU headquarters. When they arrived there Tsunade brought Sakura to a room and said to wait, while she got her a mask and a uniform. That way the she could continue to remain incognito. The Hokage came back a little later with just the black under garb of two different uniforms and a plain white mask.

"I wasn't sure what size you wear so pick the uniform that will fit you the best, and I already explained to the examiner that you are to remain anonymous and that I will be watching over your exam." said Tsunade.

"They don't know who I am, do they?" Sakura asked just to make sure all her requirements were met.

"Nope," her mentor answered.

Sakura chose the smaller of the uniforms, because she was petite even for a woman. Only reaching 5'2" combined with a slender, lithe form. The uniform was form-fitting and revealing and at the same time, perfectly hiding the identity of the wearer. She slipped on the mask and turned to face Tsunade.

Tsunade cleared her throat and started speaking, "In this exam you are tested in all areas of combat; genjutsu, taijutsu, ninjutsu, and your mastery of weapons. You are also allowed to skip one and only one exam that you feel you might not be up to standard in. The vast majority of ninjas chose to skip out on one. Which exam would you like to skip?"

Sakura laughed lightly thinking that the Hokage was really underestimating her but, she couldn't blame her. As far as she knew no ninja had ever gone from a slightly above average chunnin to ANBU at sixteen. Tsunade took the laugh as one of relief and smiled, until the younger woman gave her, the answer to the question. "None of them," the young medical ninja said. Tsunade stared at her like she was insane and asked if she knew that if she failed even one test she would fail it all. Sakura replied that yes she knew about that and that she still wanted to take all the exams.

"The last person who said that and actually passed all four exams was Uchiha Itachi. Are you sure? This exam is harder than you could fathom," Tsunade said.

Sakura merely nodded and sighed. Tsunade led her out of the room to the first exam. The first exam was on taijutsu. The exam was consisted of having to fight a current member of ANBU. The rules were few. It must be strictly taijutsu but, chakra was allowed. It was also mentioned that Sakura had to come at the opponent with the intention to kill but, to not actually kill or permanently incapacitate them. Other than those rules there were no other restrictions. They gave the young woman five minutes to prepare. In that time Sakura discreetly put her blindfold on and prepared her senses for battle. Then the five minutes were up and Skaura moved to the end of the field.

When the examiner said, "go" Sakura tapped her left foot gently to the ground releasing only a tiny bit of chakra, as to roll the ground slightly, underneath her opponent, to distract the ANBU, and not to destroy the ground. In an instant Sakura appeared behind the ANBU and decided that she only wanted to play with the enemy, so she tapped a chakra point in his left arm. Knowing that most people were right handed and that he would still be able to fight her to almost his full capacity, which was what she wanted. Sakura then moved a foot away and the ANBU operative started to try to move his arm but, couldn't and decided to start on the offensive. Sakura blocked all of his shots lazily even though they were moving at high speeds, just blurs of color.

During this time Sakura noticed the person was definitely male, she had thought so, because of his physique but, she was positive now because of his fighting style. He was tough but the fight wasn't overly challenging so, the woman smirked under her mask and decided to provoke him to see if he could fight her more seriously. It worked but, it still wasn't that hard for Sakura, so to end the fight she rapidly pushed several more chakra points quickly and then pressed one at the back of his neck before he completely passed out he managed to snag at her mask but she pushed the mask back up and caught the ANBU operative before he hit the ground.

She then unplugged all of the chakra points except the one on his neck and then laid him on the ground. Sakura turned to the examiner who had a shocked aura radiating from him. She could only imagine what his face looked like because she couldn't actually see it, through her blindfold. She grinned behind the mask thinking how shocked he would be if he knew she had a blindfold on. Tsunade came into the room through a door Sakura had noticed when she first walked into the training room. Tsunade looked at her apprentice slightly shocked and then narrowed her eyes she came up to her. Sakura knew she had noticed the blindfold. She took off Sakura's mask, still carefully not to let any of her cherry locks show and showed the examiner.

The examiner stuttered, "W-wwas that on th-the entire time?" Sakura nodded slightly. The examiner then looked at her funny and said, "That was the best taijutsu specialist in ANBU and I know he wasn't holding back. Congratulations, you definitely passed the taijutsu exam. Let's go to the next exam, its genjutsu and the same rules apply." He walked them over to the next room. Sakura slipped the mask back on, glad that the examiner couldn't tell who it was.

He stopped in front of the door and said that he and Tsunade were going to walk into the next room where they could observe but, not be affected by any genjutsus. "When we walk into that room count to 10 and then walk into the adjacent room." he said as he and the Godaime walked through the other door. Sakura counted to ten and opened the door and as it opened she noticed there was a genjutsu already in play and a layered one at that. She quickly undid the jutsu and smirked a little because she had found a way to break out of layered genjutsus easily. In just one step by forcing a little medical chakra into the correct pathways of the brain, it would instantly dissolve all the layers of genjutsu. Then Sakura walked into the room and saw a person sitting on the ground. She made hand seals in a split second, too quickly for anyone to see for a genjutsu that took the last image that the person saw and slowly turned it into there worst fear.

After a few seconds she could tell that her opponent was about to break out of it so, she timed the next genjutsu to kick in the instant that the other one broke. This genjutsu was subtle and hard to detect. It made the person think they were at home and that they were too exhausted to take off there clothes and fall into bed. Sakura watched the genjutsu user get up and walk a few feet away as if she was going to go to bed and it seemed that out of habit the genjutsu specialist started to cast a simple genjutsu that would alert the user if it was broken as a safety measure before she fell asleep. Sakura quickly ran to her opponent and formed the other half of their hand seals with her other hand to create an entirely different genjutsu that cast a deeper sleep to the person caught in it. The genjutsu user completely unaware fell asleep.

Sakura felt a slight shift in the atmosphere and quickly dispelled the oncoming illusion, figuring this might be a room where if you beat the challenger another genjutsu starts to form. She then sat on the floor as Tsunade and the examiner came in, something was funny so she quickly preformed her layered genjutsu release and the genjutsu disappeared to reveal the very same image.

"Alright that was very good, this isn't a genjutsu anymore but, that was impressive that you knew when it appeared we were coming into the room that it was a genjutsu. I am highly impressed you pass that exam too," the examiner said. "Were you blind folded for that too?" he suddenly asked. She bobbed her head in affirmation. "Then how were you able to figure that she was going to use the genjutsu right before she fell asleep. Do you have a bloodline limit that could help?"

"Yes, I do have a bloodline limit but, I haven't activated it yet for the exams. I can feel the shift in chakra, when a genjutsu is starting to form" Sakura answered slightly relieved that the mask muffled her voice and made it sound slightly deeper.

"Do you think you can take both other exams today? If not its fine, since the time allowed for testing is two days to complete all the exam," said the examiner, while Sakura undid the genjutsus she had previously placed on her last opponent.

"I can take at least one more test depending on which test it is." Sakura replied to the ANBU Examiners question. The genjutsu user woke up, bowed to opponent and said arigato for the good match and congratulated her on a job well done. Then walked out the door and started to form hand seals no one in the room could see. Sakura immediately broke the genjutsu before the specialist could even complete the seals for it. She turned and asked how Sakura could see the seals. Sakura replied, "I couldn't see the seals, because I was blindfolded but I could feel the shift in chakra that genjutsu are created." The genjutsu specialist stared and then left the room. Sakure slipped off the blindfold to see the woman's expression, but left the mask on. She giggled at the woman's stunned expression and looked toward Tsunade, who also looked shell shocked.

"The next test is either ninjutsu or the weaponry test, which would you prefer to take? You can take the last one tomorrow and we will give you your results by the end of that day." The examiner asked resuming the previous conversation.

"That sounds good, I'd like to take ninjutsu test, it used to be my weakest area and I'd like to see how I compare now," Sakura said confidently.

"I can stick you against the strongest ninjutsu user in Konoha if you want, he doesn't really work for ANBU anymore but, if you want a challenging ninjutsu fight I'll send for him."

"I would appreciate that," Sakura responded to the ANBU examiner.

The ANBU examiner then walked out of the room with the Hokage and Sakura following. The ANBU examiner walked over and spoke to an idle ninja. "He's going to get your opponent, he'll be quick to find him, however it might be a while. Your opponent tends to run late," the examiner said when he returned.

Sakura groaned lightly, now knowing exactly who he was going to bring in to fight her, "Hatake Kakashi, the famous copy ninja."

"Yes, how did you… never mind." He started to say but, cut himself off when the Hokage silenced him with a look that said not to dig too deep.

"You know he may be close to on time, especially if he thinks that he is going on a mission to find his ex-female kunoichi and my apprentice. No one seems to know where she went and Kakashi is especially worried, since she was the one that used to be the weakest of team 7. Every time I call him for a mission he is within five minutes of the meeting time and is alert at least until he finds out that it is a completely different mission," said Tsunade. This was Tsunade's way of hinting to Sakura that she was missed and that she had better visit Kakashi as soon as possible before he killed himself with guilt of thinking he'd lost another teammate.

The young medical-nin said, "That's interesting. I'm sure she'll turn up or he'll find her," but it really meant that Sakura would visit her team soon to let them know she was still alive.

The three sat down at a table with comfortable padded chairs and talked about the current events in Konoha. Sakura realized she had missed so many important events. Sasuke had come back, after he killed Deidara, Kisame, and Zetsu. When Akatsuki had disbanded Itachi wasn't heard from and Sasuke couldn't find him and decided to come back to Konoha until any news was heard. Apparently, both Sasuke and Naruto were both highly concerned for their pink-haired friend because, they both demanded to search for her every week. Other news included Shikamaru proposing to Ino, the Hyuuga's naming Neji the next in line for the clan leader, when both Hinata and Hanabi refused. Neji had also become the first division ANBU captain. After about fifteen minutes of talking, Kakashi walked into the room looking slightly alert, especially when he caught sight of Tsunade.

"Kakashi, I have an ANBU examinee that I wish for you to test in Ninjutsu," said Tsunade.

"I can't, I'm not available, I'm conserving my energy for training with Naruto and Sasuke tonight," he said in his normal bored monotone.

Tsunade sighed, "If you test this one Kunoichi for me I will let you and the rest of team seven look for Haruno Sakura in 2 days if she doesn't show up."

He appeared to consider before he jumped at the offer and motioned to the Kunoichi to follow, "Hai, I'll do it. Come on."

"Arigato Kakashi-Sempai" Sakura said struggling not to say sensei. That would have been a dead giveaway. He began to lead her to an outdoor field. This was going to be harder than Sakura had imagined because she was facing Kakashi-sensei and she couldn't let him see my face, any of her signature moves or specific medical skills or he would become suspicious.

"No need for the sempai, you obviously did very well in the other tests or they wouldn't have sent for me, so just Kakashi is fine," he said giving a faint eye crease. She noticed his eye crease was sadder, and the petite ninja felt guilty. "Hai, Kakashi. I am sorry to hear about your missing teammate but, I am sure she is alright. She was your student and the Godaime's apprentice was she not?" she said to try and alleviate the guilt she was feeling for making the Copy ninja worry.

"Hai, but I can't help worry. Anyway, here we are I'll give you a minute to warm up and prepare yourself." Kakashi said.

She nodded and walked to the far end of the field discreetly slipping her blindfold back on. "Bloodline limits or not? I understand if you want to continue to conserve chakra for your spar later with your teammates." She asked wanting to have a fair fight.

"**Yeah, because we could kick his butt either way!"** Inner Sakura yelled loudly inside Sakura's mind.

"Inner, there is no way on earth I am going to underestimate Kakashi-sensei in Ninjutsu," Sakura growled at her Inner for being over-confident.

Kakashi appeared to debate with himself for a moment then answered, "With. Is that how you managed to pass your other tests? You appear a little on the small side to have just beaten the Taijutsu and Genjutsu specialists easily enough for the examiner let you have a go at me."

Sakura wasn't sure if he actually believed what he said or if he was trying to get under her skin. If that was the case it wasn't working on her (with the exception of Inner Sakura, which happened to be screaming obscenities that the Outer Sakura was blatantly ignoring.) "Actually, I haven't activated it at all today, besides it's quite true I am on the small side but, looks are deceiving and a ninja should always look underneath the underneath." Sakura said while, activating her bloodline limit, while Kakashi revealed his Sharingan.

The examiner wanted to see how this match would turn out and he enthusiastically said, "Begin!"

The Kunoichi instantly used her bloodline limit to see how the match would begin. _She attacks first with Katon and slips under ground to pull Kakashi down in an earth jutsu but, he pulls her up out of the ground and holds her in a captured position with her hands in back of her and a Kunai at her neck ands says, "I haven't said start yet." Then he disappears underground as soon as he says start. _ Now Sakura knew how to start the match.

"Kakashi are you going to say start?" the medical ninja asked politely and in the moment he had been surprised from her inquiry Sakura formed very fast hand seals, one set for a clone which she hid under ground and another one for a Katon just in case he did see me form hand seals.

He looked at me closely and said do you know me? "Nope you don't know me," Sakura said, which was only half true. He didn't know about her or her skills but, he knew who she was.

"Very well, begin," He said. She launched a Katon at him and moved close to fight short range attacks, but then he moved underground. The rosette laughed because she knew her clone was underground and that he had a surprise waiting for him when he resurfaced.

"Shoot," he said when he came up from underground, that ninja was good, she had already had a Kage Bunshin waiting underground for him. "Where the hell is she," he said when he realized that the ninja wasn't in plain view anymore.

From Sakura's hiding place she launched one of her more powerful jutsus. By hiding he wouldn't be able to see her hand-seals and copy the jutsu. The jutsu was a wind jutsu that sent invisible wind Senbon that pierced the skin and drained chakra. Sakura moved quickly to a different location, so he couldn't find her and launch an attack on her. Kakashi was hit with a few needles but managed to dodge the brunt of them. Sparing himself from any serious damage done.

He looked around and must have seen his opponent because he sent a water jutsu her way which she immediately countered with an even stronger water jutsu, since water was one of her natural types of chakra. He immediately countered with an earth jutsu, since Earth negated and water jutsus. Now it was Sakura's turn to move out the way, she jumped to the middle of the field near where he was standing and not willing to reveal her identity with chakra infused strength, so instead she formed rapid hand seals for an earth jutsu that encased the user then did a grand Katon, to melt the top layer of rock to insure he stayed there. Unsurprisingly he popped up behind me. "Substitution Jutsu?" She questioned and preformed at the same time. He was caught off guard again but he preformed a jutsu Sakura didn't have any knowledge of, and incased her in ice. However, having supreme chakra control she melted the front few inches of ice off her hands and mouth and preformed another katon that melted all the ice around her and dried her clothes off.

She then went into a string of lightening jutsus which he countered and sent other jutsus back. After about an hour of continued chakra use, the tiny kunoichi previous exams, and current use of her kekkai genkai, fatigue started catching up to her. It was also apparent that Kakashi's chakra was starting to wane, so Sakura swallowed her pride and allowed him to pin her with her stomach on the ground and him on top of her. (Minds out of the gutter, please) Both out of breath the masked female ninja said, "I concede. Good match."

He nodded and said, "Good match yourself even Naruto and Sasuke don't give me a vigorous workout in just ninjutsu." Sakura beamed behind the mask, even if it was indirect, that meant that little, pathetic Sakura was better than the legendary misfits of team seven. Kakashi's eye narrowed slightly and he looked into Sakura's eyes closely. "Are you wearing a blindfold?" he asked incredulously.

She laughed lightly and answered, "Yes".

He rolled off me, "What's your kekkai genkai, I didn't see you use it."

"It's the genzougan," Sakura answered. (A/N genzou means vision, or illusion. Gan is the suffix added to the eye techniques; Sharingan, Byakugan.)

"Never heard of it before, what does it do?" he said curiously.

"That's a secret, even I don't know the full extent, I'm the last known person to have it." she said seriously. "Anyway, I am exhausted and you have to meet with your team tonight," she stood up. He nodded and left as Tsuande walked in.

"Why did you concede, you could've flipped him over and won." said Tsunade.

"I didn't because I didn't want the spar to go on for forever, I am exhausted from chakra use and he seemed a little distracted. Plus Tsunade-shi um… sama he would've just used a substitution, he already had the hand seals made." Sakura answered wisely.

"Oh," was the reply, "Meet me back here tomorrow at 8 and we'll conduct the rest of your test."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't and never will own Naruto. I very sad about this, please don't rub it in.

Chapter 3: Liar

The next morning Sakura donned on the ANBU outfit Tsunade had temporarily given her and met the Hokage outside the ANBU headquarters promptly at 8 o'clock. They walked right in and saw the same examiner as yesterday. He said something incredibly stupid considering Sakura's immense strength, he asked her, "Do you actually know how to wield a katana, because if not it would be pointless to take this next test."

Sakura barely restrained her temper and answered that yes she absolutely knew how to wield a katana. Her fists were clenched and she was emitting a deadly aura. She hadn't worked for six long months to have more people underestimate her, even after they have seen some of her skills. He seemed to finally notice and said apologetically, that he didn't doubt any of her skills just that not many ninjas trying for ANBU actually knew how.

"Do you need to borrow a katana for your next test?" he asked. In answer Sakura just transported her grandfather's katana into her hand from home and withdrew it from its case. The examiner did a slight double take when he noticed the sword. The Kunoichi tilted her head in inquiry and before she could ask, he inquired, "Where did you get that?"

"It was a relative's that is no longer living, why?" Sakura said suspiciously.

"That's the sword of a Haruno that lived many years ago, he apparently was very good at swordplay." he said. She wondered if that was why swordplay came pretty easy to her.

"Never heard of him," Sakura said, it was partially true she didn't know her grandfather's reputation at all considering her parents never talked about it, because they weren't shinobi. they started to make their way towards the room.

"This is where your last test will be taken and afterwords we will tell you your position," said the examiner.

"Hai" Sakura said. The masked ninja walked into the room and when she saw who it was she started muttering obscenities. It was Hyuuga Neji with his Byakugan activated. His eyes widened slightly, "Sa."

"Don't you dare reveal my identity Hyuuga or I will take off my blindfold and beat you to a pulp," the Kunoichi threatened with a raised fist.

"Fine, but you owe me an explanation later," he said.

"That's an acceptable arrangement," Sakura replied.

Then the match started and the Hyuuga was graceful. They moved rapidly, coming together and breaking apart in harmony. Thrusting and looking for openings. Twirling around and engaging each others swords. It looked like more of a dance than a fight. Fights were messy but, this was elegant. Then Sakura surprised him, she hooked the tip of the sword into his hand guard and tore the sword from his grasp, back flipped over him while simultaneously flipping his sword behind her. She landed behind him and pressed the sword near his neck.

Breathing hard, Sakura breathily whispered just loud enough for Neji to hear, "That was the best spar anyone has put up."

She released him and he said, "Hn, that was the best spar I've had in a long time, we should train together in the future." The two opponents bowed to each other as Tsunade and the examiner walked in.

"You pass with flying colors and we are giving you the job of second ANBU captain just below Hyuuga, Neji," the examiner enthusiastically congratulated her.

She nodded once again and bowed slightly, "I have a request, may I have two masks one without hole for the eyes and another with. I really don't want to have to tie a blindfold on every single time I leave on a mission."

"Alright we will have your ANBU uniform sent to you by the end of tomorrow, where would you like it delivered to?" the ANBU examiner asked.

Neji spoke up understanding that I didn't want other people to know who I was, "I'll take it to her after I come in from my short mission tomorrow. I'm not letting her skip our little talk." He looked pointedly at her.

"Don't worry I would've talked to you Hyuuga but, thanks I appreciate it," Sakura said.

After a nice shower she went to Naruto's favorite place hoping to find him, unfortunately, he wasn't at the ramen stand. She asked the Ramen man if he had seen Naruto, Sasuke, or Kakashi-sensei. He said he hadn't yet today but normally they trained at this time and came for ramen later. The petite woman thanked him and went to the training grounds. Sakura was still too out of range for them to see her, but she could see them and decided to show them just how much further her chakra punches ranged now. She grinned manically and got to just right outside of their field of sight, gathered chakra to her fist, and slammed down onto the ground. This caused all of the training ground to be demolished. Sakura flipped out to the middle of the field through the debris and bowed saying, "I always thought this place needed to be remodeled." The Kunoichi looked up to their shocked faces and said, "I'm not an enemy you can drop the kunai." That seemed to snap them out of their trance like state.

"Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto disbelievingly.

"Hai, Naruto, it's me," She tiredly answered

"Teme, Sakura-chan's back! Where you been all this time," said Naruto.

"I can see that, dobe," said Sasuke. They turned expectantly towards her.

"Um, right! Didn't Tsunade tell you, I was on vacation: I took an extended leave to travel as a civilian," she quickly lied. "Want to spar? I feel in need of some exercise," she said trying to change the subject, since she knew she was never a very good liar in the first place and she could tell that Kakashi-sensei was suspicious.

"Alright Sakura-chan you should fight teme, then you can show him what baachan taught you," said Naruto.

"Alright, Sasuke (she had long gotten over the -kun) how about a Taijutsu fight. You can use Sharingan, if I can use my chakra enhanced strength." He smirked arrogantly, and Sakura laughed. "Sasuke if you don't take this seriously I'm going to kick your ass easy, I've worked on my speed with Tsunade too. Kakashi-sensei will you start the match?" she asked.

"GO," said Kakashi not even looking up from his perverted book.

Sasuke attacked first by moving behind her and trying to punch her, but by the time he had gotten behind her she was already behind him and had started a kick towards him. He was able to move away from the brunt of the kick but, Sakura still managed to get him, if only a little. He stumbled back a little. Sakura decided that she was going to let him win, but only by a little bit. That way they wouldn't suspect anything about her new advanced abilities. The fight went on for about twenty more minutes, Sakura herself wasn't hurt at all but, Sasuke had quite a few bruises, a sprained ankle, and a dislocated or broken finger. She decided to let him end it before she had to heal too much damage and besides he was already starting to breathe a little heavily. Sasuke went in for a low kick and Sakura decided to start pretending to be tired and let him trip her. She "tripped" but softened her landing with chakra. Sasuke pinned her and "won."

"OK Sasuke get off me and I'll heal you," the only female of team seven said.

She started to heal him and he looked at her strangely and said, "you let me hit you the last time before, I couldn't even hit you before but all the sudden you pretended to be tired and let me hit and then softened your landing with chakra. I saw it with my Sharingan."

"It takes a lot of energy to dodge and I was starting to get tired. It was a simple miscalculation and I realized it the instant I made it so, since I didn't want to heal myself I just decided not to get hurt. I am flattered you think I'm better than that though," Sakura defended carefully so, as not to raise suspicion. Luckily, he decided to take her words at face value, because Sakura was not a very good liar.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I'm flattered you would even think I own Naruto

Chapter 4: A New Team

Sakura left the ANBU headquarters and went home cooked a quick lunch, and then took a nap. She woke up to several sharp knocks on her front door. She started and jumped out of bed racing to the door not wanting to keep whomever the person was waiting. The bed-tousled woman opened the door and was surprised to see that it was already mid-morning. She had slept all through yesterday evening and the night. However, unsurprisingly, Hyuuga Neji was at my door with a brown parcel tied with twine.

"Hello, Hyuuga-San, would you like some breakfast? I just woke up and apparently I fell asleep right after lunch yesterday, so I am famished." Sakura politely asked as she led him into the kitchen to sit at the table.

"Breakfast would be appreciated Haruno-San and you just waking up does explain your disheveled appearance, although I was tempted to think it was due to something slightly less innocent," Neji remarked with a smirk, mind obviously in the gutter.

"First of all, did you just make a joke? I thought you were all uptight but, apparently not. Second, don't call me Haruno-San, Sakura is just fine, especially if you are going to joke with me in that manner," Sakura replied amused.

"Alright, but you have to drop the honorific too," he replied emotionless, already back to his stoic attitude.

"Agreed. I'm just going to go and get dressed. I'll be back in five minutes, so sit down at the table and make your self comfortable. There's coffee if you want it," Sakura said trying to be polite while she rushed out of the room wanting to get dressed and out of yesterday's clothes. She ran to her room and started to change. As an after thought she raised her voice a little, "Don't you even think about using Byakugan or I might have to send you through my wall."

"Hn," Neji grunted loudly, smirking to himself in Sakura's kitchen

Sakura came back to kitchen looking considerably more put together, "you know that really isn't a response."

"Hn," he replied again.

Sakura sweat-dropped. "Are pancakes good?"

"Hn," he smirked.

"Now you're just doing that to annoy me," she said making a shadow clone to cook breakfast.

"What's the shadow clone for?" he asked looking at it suspiciously.

"Cooking, I don't feel like it," she replied languorously.

"You mean you are lazy," Neji teased lightly.

"No, I just hate cooking and house-cleaning," she replied slightly defensive.

"So, Sakura tell me why you needed secrecy," said Neji still managing to become impassive in less than a heartbeat.

She took a deep breath, "I'm going to tell you something you must never tell anyone else, not even Tsunade-sama. OK?" Neji nodded. "If you do, people that are precious to me probably would be targeted," she paused looking over at him to make sure he understood.

"I will start at the beginning I am from the Haruno clan, which was at one time just as renowned as the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans. However, due to various circumstances my clan started to wane. We were well known for our blood-line limit. My grandfather Ataru Haruno was the last ninja in our family to have possessed the genzougan, our family bloodline limit. Until, about six months ago, I discovered I had the kekkai genkai too. The genzougan allows me to see chakra and increases my chakra and speed abilities; like the Byakugan and Sharingan but, it's defining feature is it allows me to see into the future. Six months ago I convinced Tsunade-sama to give me six months to become ANBU level, and she did. I trained for six months and I came back two days ago and you know the rest. What you can't tell Tsunade or anyone else, well besides my clan's secrets is that I didn't use my bloodline limit, except to fight with Kakashi-sensei and I toyed with all the examiners. If people knew I had a bloodline and that I was Haruno Sakura, I wouldn't be able to keep my secrecy, people would come just to fight to see how they measured up to the Hokage's apprentice, I couldn't be a medical ninja, and my friends would be in danger if people knew who I was." Sakura finished her long explanation.

"I understand and I'll respect you wishes and not say anything," Neji said solemnly.

Sakura smiled brightly and her clone served breakfast. They ate in relative silence for a few minutes before she remembered the package. The Kunoichi opened the package carefully and there in the package was a new uniform. Included was the black under garb, the white guard shin and arm guards, my two masks, and an ANBU forehead protector. Sakura gasped when she saw the masks, they were magnificently done. The first mask didn't have eyes and was painted with fox markings. Fox masks stood for cleverness and clear thinking ability. It was painted with an orange red paint and every stroke of the paint brush was clearly defined. The second mask, the one with eyes was painted as a wolf; for strength and unpredictability. It was a medium-light grey and the craftsmanship on this mask was as brilliant as the first.

"You like them? The ANBU captain's masks are always more detailed and life-like than regular masks," said Neji with a slightly appreciative tone. In a strictly business, tone Neji rattled off a new missions briefing, "Your next mission is going to be next weekend. Tsunade wants you and I to meet with her Friday at 6 in the evening. Also, Tsunade told me that you should meet your new team. She said that she doesn't care if you spy on them or meet them face to face but you should know about your team before the mission briefing. Thanks for breakfast I have to go now." Then Neji walked out the door. Sakura grinned evilly, Tsunade said that she could spy on her new team.

The next day Sakura spied on all three of her new teammates during their own individual training sessions. The Kunoichi stayed far away and used her ability to see chakra to see their movements and map out their battle strategies. Then later that day she sent them each a little note saying to meet at training ground 16 on Thursday at 4 in the afternoon.

THURSDAY

Sakura was excited to meet her new team but, felt a little guilty. It was Thursday afternoon and five past four and she still have another fifty-five minutes scheduled for her shift at the hospital. She did it on purpose of course but, she guessed she was just too nice not to feel a little guilty. Luckily she only had just one more patient.

"Hello, Hinata. Are you feeling better today?" Sakura asked walking through the door of a recovery room.

"Hai, my injuries are much better," Hinata replied.

"Ok, let me just check out your injuries and then I'll sign your release," the young medical ninja said. She checked the other Kunoichi's injuries. It took about twenty minutes. Hinata's injuries had been extensive. She was on a mission when some ninjas attacked while she was low on chakra. She managed to injure them but, they pursued her when they realized she was a Hyuuga. Luckily, another Konoha ninja was nearby and heard the fight and decided to help. After Sakura finished with Hinata, she decided that since her shift only had about twenty-five more minutes and she was all done with all her patients for the day she was going home to change into my ANBU uniform and wait till about five to go to the training grounds.

At about five Sakura transported herself to a tree above the entrance to the training grounds, and waited for her ANBU ninjas to notice her. They were all lounging about 10 feet away relaxing. One of them noticed Sakura right away. Sakura could tell by the way his body tensed slightly. The other two ninjas weren't paying much attention so Sakura whipped three senbon from her weapons pouch and flung them at all three of her new subordinates. The one that had originally noticed the mysterious ANBU in the tree was able to dodge and fling a kunai back at her, the other two managed just to dodge but their senbon, and in an instant later they had kunai of their own to use and were in a defensive position.

"Konichiwa, I am your new team captain." Sakura said while jumping gracefully from the tree. She walked over towards my new team and stood beside them. They all looked down at her, because they were all tall men. The shortest was 5'10, the next tallest was 6' and the tallest was 6'1.

"You are our new captain? You are late! You are so small. What are you like 12? You can't be our captain," the man that was 6' stupidly said.

"I thought the ANBU tests were supposed to weed out the idiots," Sakura said secretly pleased that there was a person a little like Naruto on her team. The rest of the group chuckled nervously; obviously a little smarter than this guy. "What are your names, list them from shortest to tallest."

Akane, was the shortest, he had brown spiky hair and blue eyes. Kaito was the tallest, he had dirty blonde hair with hazel green eyes. The idiot's name was Kenshin, he had black hair, and green eyes. Sakura had some pretty good looking teammates. "First of all Idiot, you can call me Saku, I am 16 not 12 if you continue to demean my stature or position I will personally show you a lesson you won't forget." The Kunoichi said in a threatening tone to get her point across.

"Such big words from a small kunoichi," Kenshin said mockingly. "I bet I could take you down easy."

"I think you are an arrogant jerk who wants to fight me and lose," Sakura said starting to lose her temper just a little.

"Finally, you get that I want to fight!" he said.

"Ok, all of you against me, fight to kill," She said while thinking this is turning out to be more and more like Kakashi-sensei's training practices.

"We'll hurt you hurt you if we fight you hard," said Kaito.

"Am I not second ANBU captain? It's either you hurt me or I hurt you, your pick," the feisty woman tossed over her shoulder as she moved about 20 feet away. "Are you ready?" she asked them.

They replied, "Yes."

"Alright, go," Sakura shouted

She put her blindfold on again and opened her senses. Kenshin was coming at her fairly quickly. Which wasn't surprising at all, in fact Sakura had expected it. He threw a kick and a couple of punches, she blocked all them and threw her own chakra-enhanced kick which connected with him and sent him flying towards a tree twenty feet away; knocking him unconscious. Then she stared back at the other two. They looked at each other and then both went after Sakura, one started a genjutsu which she immediately dispelled before he could complete it. They tried trapping their captain between them and using taijutsu, but Sakura merely blocked and finally moved at her top speed and before they could comprehend her movements their chakra points from the waist down were all blocked and they were laying on the ground. "I decided not to hurt you two, because you weren't the idiot who questioned my capabilities." she said walking over to them and unblocking the chakra points then going over to their teammate.

They stood up and looked down on me again and Akane said, "Kenshin has always had a sharp tongue and very little common sense, so please excuse him. Let's start over Saku-san."

"I can see you are the wise one, alright we will start over," Sakura said as she finished healing their teammate.

"What the hell? Why aren't you attacking her?" exclaimed Kenshin when he woke up.

"She already beat us up and healed us that's why," said Kaito. "You know she beat you with one move you probably should show her some respect."

"Hai, I will. Thank you Saku-san for healing me and forgive me for misjudging you," said Kenshin.

"Ah, it's alright and it's water under the bridge now so don't worry, besides I'm used to it," She said in good humor. "Now for some rules, you can't take off my mask, no matter what. Keeping your teammates safe and alive to me is very important and I'd rather fail a mission than lose my team. You may ask personal questions, I might not answer though. Lastly, please listen to all commands promptly; it is very important you do what I say to the letter, for the safety of everybody. I look forward to working with you. You are dismissed." Sakura waited till they left and the transported back home.

That weekend Sakura's team met up with Neji's and completed a mission the Hokage had given them successfully. It was almost dinner time, so after the first and second ANBU captain's teams left, the captains decided to get dinner together. They changed into regular clothing and then since they were sick of ramen. Obviously, for having the same choice in friends, they decided to stop and eat in a real restaurant. It was a casual restaurant, the conversation flowed freely and both enjoyed the intellectual company. This was the start of Neji's and Sakura's habit of eating dinner after every successful mission together.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Mission

Disclaimer: Sadly I still don't own Naruto but, the plot is mine.

APPROX. 1 YEAR LATER

"Sakura, Tsunade wants to see you after your shift tonight," said Shizune. Sakura nodded, she was in the middle of healing a patient so, she couldn't talk much. This was not unusual for Tsunade to request her presence since it was a Friday and Tsunade generally had solo or duo missions for her on the weekends. Sakura finished with her patient, checked the time and it only a few minutes till the end of her shift so she gathered her stuff and went into the bathroom and changed into her ANBU uniform and used her fox mask. Sakura always used the fox mask for solo missions, since it kept her from becoming distracted by keeping her senses alert. She only used her wolf mask for team missions since she didn't want her teammates to ask questions or be wary of her messing up.

The ANBU Captain decided to just use the teleportation jutsu to get to Tsunade-sama's office. POOF! "Konichiwa, Tsunade-sama, do you have a mission for me?"

"Hai, but first I got the new Bingo book, it was just updated this morning for the first time in over a year. I want you to take a look at pages 5 and 17," said Tsunade.

Sakura took the book and wondered if her mentor was showing her the tarjets for this next mission. She opened to page 5 "Oh!" was all Sakura managed and she quickly turned to page 17. She quickly looked up at Tsunade who was grinning. On those pages were:

Pg 5.

Name: Unknown

Alias: The Blind Shadow

Sex: Female

Age: Unknown

Height: approx. 5'2"

Hair color: Unknown

Eye color: Unknown

Origin: believed to be Konoha ANBU

Class of Ninja: S-ranked

Taijutsu: advanced

Ninjutsu: advanced

Genjutsu: advanced

Doujutsu: unknown

Medical jutsu: advanced

Mask: ANBU fox captain's mask without eyes.

Other information: believed to be good with a katana, believed to be blind, has extensive knowledge of fire, water, and lightening jutsus.

Pg 17.

Name: Unknown

Alias: Mistress of the Silent Death

Sex: Female

Age: Unknown

Height: approx. 5'3"

Hair color: Unknown

Eye color: green

Origin: believed to be Konoha ANBU

Class of Ninja: S-ranked

Taijutsu: advanced

Ninjutsu: advanced

Genjutsu: advanced

Doujutsu: unknown

Medical jutsu: extensive knowledge

Mask: 2nd ANBU wolf captain's mask

Other information: medical jutsus are highly advanced can perform invasive surgery on battle field during fight. Has inhuman strength and has advanced skills with weapons including katanas. Most targets are killed silently and without victim's knowledge of a threat.

With rough sketches of what the rosette looked like on both pages. She was shocked she hadn't expected that was the reason Tsunade had called her, a slow grin spread on over the ninja's face when she looked up at Tsunade. "Is there a mission or did you just call me all the way to your office to see me gape like a fish at the bingo book?" Sakura asked playfully at my former teacher's antics.

"There is a mission as well but, it was pretty funny to see your stunned expression," replied Tsunade a grin still in place. "I am sending you with a partner on this mission, really it would have been better to send you and Kakashi but, considering it might compromise your identity I am sending Neji with you."

She breathed a sigh of relief out, since Neji already knew who she was there was no need to be overly secretive about her identity. Besides, she and Neji were sent out on many missions together and she was comfortable fighting alongside him. There was also the dinner they always shared dinner after the mission. Last time they went to a classy restaurant where they had wonderful stake, soup, and salad. The restaurant was wonderful and Sakura enjoyed talking to Neji. Once she had gotten his stoic facade to fade a bit around her their conversations were witty, fun, and relaxed. The ninja's talked about politics and shared stories about their gennin teams and generally just got to know each other better. He was still a little reserved around her and seemingly in control of every motion he made. Sakura realized Tsunade was talking again, so she pulled her focus back on the mission.

"Neji, should be here any moment for the mission briefing," said Tsunade

Right on cue there was a knock on the door and Shizune said, "Hyuuga-san is here to see you." The door opened and Neji came in dressed in his uniform just as his mission partner was. Then Tsunade briefed them on the mission. It was a simple escort mission. Normally, ANBU didn't take escort missions but, the client was a wealthy clan leader from Suna and was on his way to an important conference that effected Konoha too. So, in the interest of political relations Tsunade was sending her top two nins to keep him safe. They were leaving in two hours. Little did they know this mission was not going to be as straightforward as they originally thought.

* * *

"Hmm, what interesting little addition on page five, a blind kunoichi. I Wonder if Konoha would give up a tiny pink-haired chunnin medical ninja for the return of one of their finest ANBU ninjas," Uchiha Itachi said to himself with a slightly sinister gleam in his unseeing eyes.

* * *

Neji and Sakura meet at the gates in full uniform two hours after their briefing. Unluckily, Naruto and Sasuke were at the gate waiting for Kakashi-sensei as well. They were still both chunnins since they hadn't taken the Jounin exam yet. Apparently, they planned to take it next month together. They, well actually, Naruto had tried to convince their female teammate to take the jounin exam as well, Sasuke had just tagged along to give the illusion he was trying to convince her. It seemed that he really hadn't learned that Sakura wasn't weak anymore, even after their spar where she had just let him win. She had of course declined Naruto's unexpectedly persuasive proposition claiming that she wouldn't be able to keep up with the life of a jounin. Naruto looked sad but, Sasuke only replied with a smirk that said, "I knew you were too weak." Agitation had flared and she struggled not to accept the challenge in his eyes but, calmed herself down and contented herself, she was already an ANBU captain and was way ahead of that smug jerk. Inner Sakura had then provided her support by showing her a picture of his face if he found out that she was already a captain.

Anyway just as the ANBU were approaching the gate Kakashi showed up and noticed them. "Konichiwa Neji, and I don't think I ever got your name when we spared for your test," said Kakashi in a surprisingly polite tone, apparently he only addressed his teammates in indifference.

"Saku," Sakura said using the alias she used on her ANBU team. It was close enough to her real name that she would answer to it, but far enough so that people weren't suspicious of whom she was.

"Congratulations Saku in making the bingo book," said Kakashi. Neji looked at his partner slightly surprised and both Naruto's and Sasuke's attention was caught.

"Ahh," Sakura sighed knowing that this would incite Sasuke's curiosity and Naruto's well Narutoness, his excitement and promises of becoming the next Hokage, not that she doubted him, she just had a mission to complete.

"Thanks, but Neji and I have to leave, we have a mission. Nice to make your acquaintance," Sakura said rapidly moving out of the gates of Konoha.

"Kakashi-sensei, how did you know that kunoichi?" asked Naruto.

"Well remember that time I was late for practice, that was when met her, I did her ANBU ninjutsu test. She was good she nearly beat me, although for a while it felt like she was toying with me." said Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei, you are always late!" exclaimed Naruto

"Hn," Sasuke added his two cents.

"Not late I just get lost on the road of life," replied Kakashi with an eyecrease. Naruto and Sasuke both sweat-dropped.

* * *

Neji and Sakura picked up the client at the gates. He was an older man with an air of power but, also friendliness. He was about 5'9" and the petite kunoichi only came up to just about his shoulder. He had dark eyes and longish black hair in a low pony tail. He greeted them kindly and they started off. Things went smoothly for them most of the way but, halfway to Suna a group of about ten ninjas attacked them. Neji stayed closer to the client while, Sakura fought away from the client. The odd thing was that there were only two ninjas attacking the client and the other eight were all attacking Sakura. She drew her sword and killed off three of the ninjas in rapid succession. The others were a little harder to get, but finally she only had one ninja still fighting. She quickly got behind him and pushed a chakra point that would paralyze the man temporarily from the neck down. He collapsed. The ANBU Captain stood over him with her sword at his neck, "Who sent you?"

"You think I'll tell you. I'd rather die," he stated angrily.

"That can be arranged," Sakura said ready to kill him.

"Funny man he seemed to want you in piece said he'd kill me if I messed up, he was one cold man. I believed him. I'd rather die by your hand," he said and she granted his wish although a bit more remorseful because, he was ordered to fight them and he did give her a little bit of information. Neji had finished off his attackers and they turned and silently confirmed to each other that they needed to move quickly and quietly away from this area. They left and didn't talk until they were about 2 miles from the spot.

Neji looked at her quizzically and she said stoically, "Neji, they aren't after our client, they're after me. That's what one of the men said. We are going to have to be extra alert and complete this mission as swiftly as possible."

"Hai, don't worry Sakura no one will be able to get you, you aren't weak anymore and I won't any one take you," replied Neji in an assuring manner.

Surprisingly, nothing else happened on the way to Suna but the two captains still remained alert. They became a little sleep deprived but, when they finally reached the gates without incident both were relieved, and anxiously started to head back to Konoha immediately. Their state of exhaustion and worry was their downfall.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, no matter how much I'd like to.

Chapter 6-Double Trouble

Only a couple miles outside Suna the two ANBU Captains were attacked once again. This time the ninjas were stronger and there were more of them. Neji and Sakura fought side by side. Sakura decided to fight with her katana, lately it had become an extension of her. Even when she had initially trained with the sword something about it felt right and every morning since the medical-nin had returned to Konoha she had used a transformation jutsu to change her appearance and trained with the katana and the other two swords that had come with it. Sometimes she would spar with partners and other times with just a clone. Training with a clone made it extra hard especially when if the clone activated her bloodline limit as well. It made the exercise increasingly harder because, she had to trap the clone into a lose/lose situation, where no matter what the clone did she would win. It was a mentally exhausting exercise that tested endurance and ability to adapt to a situation.

The ninjas that attacked them were strong, jounin at least. Neji activated his Byakugan and told Sakura to stay close so that they didn't get separated. Sakura activated her genzougan and moved close to Neji, fighting together side by side. Using the sword the Kunoichi managed to cut down one of the enemies but, the rest were long range type attackers so neither her current style of fighting or Neji's worked very well. She sheathed the katana and preformed an earth jutsu she had seen many times from Kakashi. She pulled two of the ninjas into the ground and pressed a pressure point in the back of their necks. If anything Sakura was a merciful killer. She didn't like her victims to feel too much pain. It was part of the reason she was a medical-ninja. The compassionate woman couldn't bare to see anyone suffering. Then to finish off the ninjas she killed them with a medical jutsu stopping their hearts.

Sakura engaged two more ninjas in a taijutsu combat she had already knocked the first one out with a high chakra-enhanced kick to the head. She was just about to kill this man with a chakra-enhanced punch, when an image flashed in through her mind's eye. _Neji was using his gentle fist technique against a man with light hair. He was unable to land a hit on the man. Then the enemy man preformed a rapid succession of hand seals and a lightning jutsu barreled toward Neji and he wasn't able to dodge or counter it. "Sakura," he shouted as he was hit. He was laying on the ground rasping for breath as Sakura used her ultimate technique to finish off everyone and rushed over to him. She was running low on chakra and was mostly just conscious, because of adrenaline. Sakura sent her healing chakra into him and found a wound too severe to heal with what little chakra she had left. He died in her arms and she cried defeated, and slumped to the ground unconscious._

When Sakura saw the scene in her mind, her heart raced and she felt sick. It was like waking up from a particularly bad dream. She stopped her punch midway through, from the onslaught of the potent emotions running through her mind and the sickening fear clenching at her heart. Her opponent used that as an opportunity and he punched the Kunoichi hard in the ribs. Sakura heard and felt a dull crack, but ignored it. She looked over at Neji he wasn't fighting that guy yet so, she had time. She quickly finished off her opponent, when he came close she drew her katana and in a flash had slit his throat. He sunk pitifully to the ground with a painful expression on his face, but Sakura had no time to dwell on her brutality, her teammate and friend was in trouble. She could tell he was starting to wear down so she jumped close to him and finished off one of his opponents by sneaking up behind him and piercing his heart, killing him instantly.

There were only three enemies left and one of them was the fair-haired guy from my vision. Her heart clenched painfully again, as if to remind her of what she already knew. She decided to end this before that ninja could hurt Neji or herself. She used one of her more powerful jutsus that she had created. She rapidly did the hand signs, almost to fast to see that her hands had moved and she focusing on all three of the enemies. The jutsu completed itself and she watched as her bewildered enemies started feeling intense pain and falling pitifully to the ground, dying in secession. The jutsu was a combination of wind and medical chakra. The medical chakra embedded itself within the body and the wind chakra transformed the harmless chakra into sharper than a kunai chakra and pierced the vital organs, starting with the liver and ending with the heart. Sakura slumped to the ground trying to remain conscious, the black edging its way into the line of sight, but before she hit the ground Neji caught her, and then she passed out.

She woke up a few minutes later to Neji carrying her while traveling through the trees. He looked at his partner wearily, "Sakura you gave me a scare, it couldn't have been necessary to use that jutsu."

"Hai, it was, I was using my bloodline limit, and that fair-haired man would have killed right about now, as soon as it had just been you and him," she ground out finding it very painful to talk with the excruciating pain racking her chest. The medical ninja quickly gathered the little energy she had left and began healing her ribs. Luckily, it wasn't that that bad of a break so it easy to heal it. "Neji, put me down now I can move," the medical-nin said as she finished healing the wound. He put her down and they began to move, albeit a lot slower than before.

For awhile everything was fine, they were about two hours outside Suna and our chakra was just starting to replenish itself, when Sakura felt a faint chakra following them. She glanced at Neji to see if he had noticed it. "Neji, we're being followed we've got to hide, we don't enough chakra to fight anyone, neither of us can activate our bloodline limits," Sakura said hurriedly, trying to emphasize the importance of hiding immediately. Neji didn't even bother to answer he just veered off the path and she followed him and for the first time she observed the terrain, looking for a hiding space. The terrain was full of trees with occasional boulders scattered about. Then she stopped, she found something useful; about a hundred meters away there was a small outcropping of rocks with a cave carved through it. It was large enough to be a well disguised hideaway. Moss and trees grew on and around it, obscuring it from view and camouflaging the entrance well.

"Neji, over there, see that outcropping?" Sakura said as she quickly slipped on her mask again. She had torn it from her face to find that blond haired guy in the last fight and had kept it off to search for a concealed location to hide. The ninjas raced toward the entrance as fast as their weary bodies allowed them. However, fate wasn't on the Konoha's ninja side, in front of them appeared one man, with a deadly aura that Sakura didn't want to meet and was certain Neji didn't want to meet him either. Her mask was on so she couldn't see his face and it was probably a good thing, but she could tell exactly who it was from previous encounters. His aura was uniquely dangerous and fear inducing.

"Uchiha Itachi," Sakura said aloud dispelling the surprise and slight fear that held her and Neji in suspended motion. Sakura checked for genjutsu but, surprisingly there was none, the Uchiha knew they were too weak to put up too much off a fight. Sakura surveyed the immediate surrounding terrain to figure out the advantages and disadvantages. It was mostly flat and rocky with many trees surrounding the area and the outcropping ten yards away and the Uchiha only 15 feet away. She flipped backward to put more distance between herself and Itachi. Neji following her lead did the same.

"What do you want Uchiha?" Sakura asked stoically, no emotion betrayed through her voice.

"I want the medic that can heal my eyes," Itachi made his demand straightforward, but cryptic at the same time. There was no way he could know that she was Haruno Sakura, or anything of her medical abilities since none of it was published as a fact in the bingo book. At least under her current alias, there was some mention of medical skills in her other ANBU alias. The Kunoichi decided to dig deeper, a dangerous thing to do with an S-class criminal standing just outside of attacking range. "There isn't a medical ninja here, so what is it that you are really after," she asked moving into a more defensive position when he shifted almost imperceptibly. She was trying to discern what his intentions were and how to counter them, since she was too weak to activate her bloodline limit she had to do it the old fashion way.

"No there isn't a medic here, but there is a petite little konoichi that is blind and low on chakra that would make a good trade for a chunnin medical ninja that surpassed her mentor's skill," he said cryptically. Sakura stood puzzled for a moment, the only konoichi that was here was her, but she knew she wasn't blind. Then she remembered, people thought she was blind, because of her eyeless mask. The Kunoichi cursed aloud when she comprehended his meaning. The Uchiha must have read the bingo book and believed she was blind and he wanted to take her as a second ANBU captain as a hostage for Haruno Sakura, so he could have his eyes healed. Irony seemed to be the theme of her life. She started out weak and seemingly worthless, then secretly grew stronger, hiding her strengths from her closest friends to keep them safe and now one of the strongest shinobi in existence wanted to take her strong identity to trade with Konoha for her supposedly physically weaker identity. It turns out that her friends weren't in danger, it was just her.

"Yep, the fates just loved toying with me," Sakura commented to herself

"**You are starting to sound like Neji with all your talk about fate. Your not going to just let this scum use you and portray you as some helpless female are you?" Sakura's alter ego "nicely" added her two-cents and her form of encouragement.**

"No way, Uchiha," the fiery Kunoichi said with renewed determination. Drawing her sword and relying on her abilities, was all she had left. She was too exhausted to use any jutsus or chakra at all. The battle began.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, if I did Sakura wouldn't have obsessed about Sasuke… at least not for so long.

Chapter 7: Struggle

Life as it turns out is full of irony. Uchiha Sasuke spent years looking for his older brother, Uchiha Itachi. However, Itachi sought out both of his younger brother's teammates without even a backward glance to Sasuke, the man that wanted his chance to kill Itachi the most.

Attacking directly wouldn't work with an Uchiha, a lesson Sakura had learned well through her training with Kakashi-sensei. Sakura's drew her sword and rushed towards Uchiha Itachi only to fade out, slip underground, and appear underneath him. Itachi jumped up swiftly and swiftly drew his katana. It wasn't as elaborate as Sakura's, it was just a standard silver Konoha ANBU katana. The kind that had an unadorned hilt without any sort of hand guard, but the Kunoichi wasn't going to let her guard down. He was deadly with a sword. Sakura had to fight intelligently and without the use of her normal vision and, unfortunately her chakra was waning and she couldn't enhance her senses with it. If Itachi saw Sakura's eyes, it would be possible for him to assume her identity. Sakura's eyes were one of her famous traits. Haruno Sakura was often times described by spectators of her fights as being the green-eyed mini-Tsunade. If Itachi were to discover who she was then it would be all over for Sakura. There was a small chance that if she put up too much trouble he would just try to kidnap another Konoha-nin.

Should he find out that she was the medical-nin he was searching for, he wouldn't even bother to alert Konoha that he'd captured their ANBU captain or make demands. The Sharingan wielder would just kidnap her and use her services. There would be no chance of escape and the odds of Itachi capturing Sakura were becoming increasingly higher. The Kunoichi was low on Chakra, her teammate was exhausted and appeared to be unconscious not to far in distance, it was impossible to use high ranking medical jutsus as she had almost no chakra and didn't want to be identified as a medical-nin, and she couldn't use her eye-sight. While this wouldn't normally be a problem Sakura did not want to fight an S-class criminal of Itachi's caliber without every single one her senses, but there was no way Sakura was going to lose without one hell of a fight.

"**That's right! Don't let him take you without a fight, Shannaro" Inner Sakura interjected vigorously.**

Itachi leapt into an offensive string of attacks, looking for an opening to strike his prey. Sakura didn't leave any. She dodged, blocked, and counter-attacked the Sharingan-user. Sakura was swiftly becoming exhausted and was taking frequent inhalations. At this rate if she didn't finish up this fight, she would lose. As the Kunoichi blocked Itachi's attacks a pattern become noticeable in his movements. He always attacked the left leg and then went back to attacking the right side to maim but, not seriously injure her. Sakurar used his pattern to her advantage, she waited he went to strike he left leg again and as soon as he moved downward the Kunoichi countered his move and used the momentum from the clash to spin behind around, so she was behind him with her sword at his throat. Panting heavily Sakura failed to foresee the substitution jutsu he used. She tensed when she couldn't sense him anywhere around or above her. Which means that he was hiding underground and the only way to get him back above ground was to use her chakra-enhanced strength, but she was caught in an inner conlict. If she gave away her strength, not only could she possibly be giving away her identity but, it would use up the last fragments of her chakra. On the hand if female ANBU captain didn't make the first move, there was a chance she wouldn't be able to make another move at all. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Sakura gathered up the last vestiges of her chakra and split open the ground.

Itachi's chakra swirled angrily within him as he came at his quarry full speed. He moved with such incredible speed that he reached the Kunoich before she was capable of detecting he had moved. Sakura hit the ground with a thud as he knocked her over but, before he could pin her, she moved with agility and flipped on top, so he was pinned. Unfortunately, Sakura was rapidly losing strength and consciousness. Itachi used that to his advantage as he flipped her over again and pinned her roughly and thoroughly. Her legs were pinned by his and he held both of her tiny hands in one of his larger hands. With his free hand he stroked her jaw line tenderly. He chuckled at the killing intent surrounding her, "Little Konoichi it's unfortunate my other little ninjas wore you out, you may have actually escaped me on your own if you had been on full chakra." There was no way for Sakura to escape and Itachi let out a chuckle as if he knew what she was thinking. That was the last thing the medic heard before she succumbed to the encroaching darkness.

Neji was trapped. He recognizes that it is a genjutsu, and a layered one. Every layer he released himself from the next level was more gruesome, frightening, and vivid. The layer he was on terrified him the most. All he scould see was his family slowly dying desperately begging for him to help. By the time he reached them they were dead or beyond help. Then his most important people began appearing and calling frantically for help. Tenten and Lee, his gennin teammates were calling but, the Hyuuga prodigy froze when he heard her voice, it was more distinct than the rest and he ran at full speed toward her voice. She wasn't gone when he reached her. "Sakura, please don't leave me," Neji murmured his eyesight becoming blurry and a heart-wrenching pain gripped his heart.

She cried out to him desperately, "Neji, save me! Do something you're first ANBU captain. Save…" As she withered away, Neji was reminded that this was only a genjutsu and he struggled to remember how Sakura taught him to break out of any genjutsu instantly.

"_How are you able to break out of genjutsus so easily Sakura?" Neji asked after a mission where she miraculously broke out of a layered genjutsu instantly after it had been placed on her. _

"_Well for a layered genjutsu I send a tiny bit of my chakra to my brain just enough to interrupt the flow of chakra and that will always work since genjutsus work by sending messages to the brain through the nerves that aren't true. Sending a minute amout of chakra to the brain will kick start your brain and cancel the jutsu. It is a relatively easy concept but only people with extremely good chakra control would be able to manage it. It should work for you if you ever got caught in a genjutsu," She said._

When Neji remembered he immediately followed her technique instructions and sent a trace of chakra into his brain. The genjutsu broke immediately but, the sight he beheld was much worse than the genjutsu, because it was real. Uchiha Itachi was holding Sakura bridle style and walking towards him. The missing-nin bent down and spoke in a quiet and surprisingly cultured tone, "She is alive and will remain alive if Konoha sends the medic Haruno Sakura to me. I will send my demands to the Hokage immediately, and you will confirm that I have taken Konoha's second ANBU captain. Send her to me and your teammate will not die." He jumped into the trees and took off at a steady pace. Neji too fatigued to standup or even comprehend Itachi's message slumped into unconsciousness.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Nope I don't own Naruto. I've just noticed I don't own a lot of things I want.

Chapter 8-Part of the secret

Sakura didn't want to open her eyes the dark, dreamless, sleep was enticing. It was like waking up from a particularly goodnight's sleep, until pain assailed her senses just moments after she opened her eyelids. Sakura refused to show any indications of pain and scoured her brain to remember where she was and why she was there. The captive was currently laying on a comfortable futon in a decent sized bedroom with off-white painted walls. There was a chakra seal on both the door and window, which was the only sign that indicated that she, was a prisoner well, besides, her battered body. Then it struck her, Uchiha Itachi captured her. She cursed and heard an amused sinister chuckle. The rosette bolted straight up into a sitting position and stiffened ignoring the cry of pain waiting to be released. She closed her eyes to delve into her body and check over it. Nothing was broken just black-and-blue bruises and she still had only minute reserves of chakra. She would have to wait at least a day to pull off an escape.

Sakura's eyes flew open as she realized something she should have noticed when she could see the room. Her mask was off. Itachi's cpative's startled gaze flew directly to Itachi's face but she was still coherent enough to remember not to look in his eyes. "Where's my mask," she growled out hiding the fear with anger.

"I removed it. It's on the bedside table to the left of your bed. It's unfortunate I can't see you. I might have gotten a chance to update the bingo books on your appearance. So don't worry your identity is safe." He said in a frigid voice. It wasn't comforting in the least and Sakura was on edge, so she reached for her mask while keeping her eyes on the Uchiha. She picked up the mask but it felt different then fox mask. She chanced a brief look, it was the wolf mask. Sakura knew a moment of fear until she remembered that this mask was also on her person in her travel pack.

"And now I know you have green eyes." He said quietly and left.

Normally when a missing S-class ninja makes a power play like that regular ninjas are scared witless. Apparently, Sakura wasn't a regular ninja, because she became furious, stood up, and stomped toward the door. In a rage she ripped open the door and stomped toward the Uchiha's chakra signature. He turned slightly when his prisoner entered the room. He must have been surprised that she actually had the nerve to approach him, "Don't play mind games Uchiha you aren't going to get your little medical ninja if I have anything to do with it."

"You remind me of the kyuubi jinchuuriki and my brother you are exceedingly impulsive," he said stoically.

Sakura stomped back to the room and deflated pitifully. In her state she wasn't even a threat especially when ruled by her emotions. He even compared her to Naruto and Sasuke, who were two of the most impulsive people that Sakura knew. "Guess you can't help what tendencies of your friends wear off on you. I wonder which if any of my tendencies wore off on any of my teammates," Sakura wondered silently to herself. The captive decided to fall asleep since that would be the best way to regain chakra. Right before she drifted back to sleep a morbid thought drifted through her mind, "At least he compared me to an alive Uchiha."

"_He's still alive we need to get him to Tsunade baa-chan or Sakura-chan."_

"_Hn."_

"_Wonder where his partner is? Let's go, we're going to need to hurry."_

"_Neji, I need you to wake up, it's about Sakura," _Neji distantly heard a female voice say as he slowly opened his eyes. Standing over him was the Hokage and he was in the hospital. All the walls were white, the floor was white, the door was painted white, and even the uniforms were white. Luckily though he wasn' t injured enough to be hooked up to machinery, or an IV. All of that made him feel trapped and like a prisoner. "Neji, I need to know where Sakura is, she's alive right?" Tsunade pleaded with him.

He clenched and unclenched his fist and looked down at the bedsheet, not wanting to tell her but, knowing it was his duty to, "She's alive alright but, Uchiha Itachi has her." I watched her face go from relief to horror.

"That's bad, he'll probably try to manipulate her to heal his eyes and then we'd have a bigger problem," Tsunade said horror-stricken, she was quite close to her pink-haired apprentice and was terrified for her life.

"Tsunade-sama, he doesn't know he has Sakura, and he wants to trade ANBU captain Sakura for medical ninja Sakura, probably to heal his eyes. He said he was going to send his conditions to you. Tsunade-sama and I'd like to request to be included in the rescue mission," Neji replied trying to calm Tsunade down.

"Hai, I'll let you, since you only passed out from exhaustion, meet me in the Hokage tower in an hour," she said determination flashing through her face as she used the transportation jutsu to leave.

The ANBU captain quickly got out of bed, he was still sore but, it was something he could deal with and he was an expert at hiding his pain. He felt guilty, it was like lead, it weighed heavy on his mind and body. His normally prideful gait was dampened as he walked to the desk to check out and retrieve his personals. The stoic male was caught up in his thoughts, "He, Neji Hyuuga had the lowest fatality rate on my missions, but he had failed to bring back one of his most important people. "What a disgrace I was. What would Naruto say if he found out?"Neji wondered to himself. Naruto was someone Neji respected, because he changed his opinion on fate. The ANBU captain had always believed that fate was life's determining factor but, Naruto had changed that. Naruto would probably curse the people, vow that he'd get Sakura back, scream some stuff about becoming the best Hokage ever, and race off and rescue Sakura with all the tenacity he possessed; which was actually quite a bit. Neji decided to follow his example, well at least in part, he wasn't going to foolishly challenge any S-class criminal, vow silly things, or scream stuff about being Hokage. He figured he'd leave Naruto's eccentric tendencies to him. However, Neji was fully prepared to track Sakura down with more tenacity than his used on his toughest missions.

"Shizune, I need you to get me Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, Akane, Kenshin, and Kaito," Tsunade barked orders to her personal assistant.

"Do you want Sakura too?" Shizune asked prepared to add the medical-nin to her mental list

"She's been captured; they're going to find her. Don't tell anyone though. I need to speak with them all immediately." Tsunade ordered in a steely cold voice.

"Hai," Shizune said racing off to find Tsunade's list of people. She checked the ANBU headquarters first and to her luck found Kenshin and Akane.

"You two please find Kaito and report immediately to the Hokage's, hurry it's urgent." she said mentally checking off their names from the list. Shizune thougt for a second to figure out where team Kakashi could be. The two most likely places were training or they had been dragged to the Ramen stand by Naruto. The raven haired apprentice checked the Ramen stand first since it was on the way to the training grounds. They weren't there which probably meant that they were training, since Naruto and Sasuke were trying to take the Jounin exams next month they needed to be in top shape. She didn't doubt that they pass the test since really they were both Jounin level already and had been for a while. They just hadn't taken the test yet. From what Tsunade had told her though Sakura was way above them and Kakashi too, even though he used to be one of the strongest ANBU alive.

Shizune reached the training ground and was relieved to see all four members there. "Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai, report to the Hokage's office immediately. Kakashi this is important to you so I wouldn't sneak away and try to be late," the woman said as she saw him start to try to slip away. They all transported into the office one by one and Shuzune went and stood off to the side of Tsunade while team Kakashi stood facing her. Then the ANBUs showed up in their uniforms, and looked curiously over at the males of team seven. Having heard about this unfortunate and powerful team and wondering where the female of the team was.

"Tsunade are you going to start, everyone is here," her apprentice asked quietly as not to challenge the authority of her position

"No, not everyone is here," she said, Shizune went through her mental list again, but everyone was here and she stood baffled by her for a moment when the door opened and in stepped Hyuuga Neji with determination etched over his face.

"Tsunade-sama I think you missed a rib," he walked in and said holding himself stiffly. Shizune turned toward Tsunade and her leader nodded. She walked toward Neji and healed his broken rib while looking up in amazement. He shouldn't have been able walk the rib was broken almost clean off. He sighed slightly in relief and then straightened up to his full height which was an impressive six feet tall. He looked with rapt attention at Tsunade.

"I will get right to the point gentlemen, Second ANBU captain, member of team seven and head medic at Konoha's Hospital, Haruno Sakura has been taken captive by Uchiha Itachi. Your mission is to get her back and kill that bloody Uchiha if possible," she said. The ninja's faces were priceless. Kenshin the slightly impulsive male of Sakura's team stared and then said, "You mean that cute petite pink-haired medical chunnin has been our captain for the last year?"

"No way," said Sasuke, "that's impossible, Sakura has always been the weakest member of team seven. There's no way she's a captain." That was the most anyone ever heard Uchiha Sasuke talk.

Tsunade icily replied to Sasuke's comments, "Sakura is an ANBU captain, she told few people. It isn't surprising you didn't know how strong she actually is."

"You know Kenshin, you might want to show Sakura a little more respect since the first time you asked her in disbelief if she was your captain, she kicked your butt in one move," replied Akane. Kenshin turned a little red, seemingly embarrassed to have been beaten so easily, "She looked so small; how was I supposed to know that she was that good?"

Poor Naruto and Kakashi still looked a little stunned and disbelieving. Tsunade noticed and asked Kakashi a question, "Kakashi, do you remember the Kunoichi I had you test right before Sakura came back, the tiny one with the blindfold that almost outdid you in Ninjutsu and probably would have if she hadn't had both the Genjutsu and Taijutsu matches one after another?"

"Um yes, Saku," he said still a little puzzled. Understanding and surprise characterized by the widening of his lone eye, dawned on his masked face, "That was Sakura wasn't it."

"You mean that ninja that passed by us the other day with Neji?" asked Naruto, "That was Sakura? Wait, Tsunade baa-chan Sakura was captured and you want you to rescue her?" he said slowly.

"Hai, that's your mission," she said a little cautiously.

"Don't worry I'll bring her back and beat the teme that took her!" came the ecstatic cry.

"Hai, I didn't know Sakura had a," started Kakashi when he was interrupted by Neji, "There's a Raven on your window sill Tsunade-sama."

Shizune walked briskly toward the raven. The Raven was black and had lustrous feathers and curiously an apparently haughty manner. It stood on the sill its dark, cold eyes watching the ninja's with disdain. She took the message off its leg and handed it to Tsunade. She read the note, her eyes widened and then looked up with a grave look, "This is a message from the Uchiha, you have two days before Uchiha Itachi kills Sakura to rescue her. The exchange location is on the border of fire and mist in the abandoned warehouse near the Naruto Bridge. Neji is captain and Kakashi is second in command. I don't care how you get her back, just do it. Dismissed!"


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: My name isn't on the credits so I'm pretty sure you know that Naruto isn't mine but, I'm just letting you know just in case you thought it was.

Chapter 9- Planning

"Neji, I'd like to talk to you before you head off to pack for the mission," Kakashi stopped the ANBU as he headed toward the Hyuuga residence.

"Hn, what do you want to ask," Neji was suspicious of what Kakashi wanted, but refrained from having any emotion leak out through his voice, since it was most likely that he just wanted to go over the plan.

"Neji, I don't doubt that Sakura is strong she does have insane strength, but is she really as strong as the bingo book says?" inquired Kakashi.

"Sakura is strong, I'm not sure I have even seen her complete strength but, I'm pretty sure that if Sakura had not saved me with one of her jutsus she could have taken Itachi." Neji replied seriously, getting angry that people thought Sakura was weak. The Captain started walking toward the Hyuuga complex and Kakashi took off his own way. Neji passed through the colorful as well as noisy vendors of Konoha, with their signs and displays. Shouting to try their product, putting on demonstrations and loudest of all were the gleeful shouts of "Sold", from the vendors, happy that they had coerced their customer into buying the newest, latest, and greatest.

Normally while passing through Konoha Neji would be completely focused on his surroundings, a natural instinct after ninja training. However, today Neji focused on something else entirely, he was starting to get a skeletal plan of how to rescue Sakura. Neji was focused solely on Sakura and the only sounds he could hear were his own thoughts and the soft and steady sounds of his ninja sandal clad feet meeting the pavement.

_Thunk…thunk…thunk._

I have two options.

_Thunk…_

They could try and find her before the transaction and break her out. That was highly dangerous since Itachi didn't leave any clues to his whereabouts. Tsunade had already sent out an Anbu team to check.

_Thunk…_

Even if they did know where to get Sakura the problem remains that Sasuke was on this mission and I don't need a full blown revenge fight blowing up in my face.

_Thunk…_

Literally. The other option is to wait till the transaction and just take Sakura and fight Itachi, Sasuke would still be a problem though.

_Thunk…_

But in this situation it may be what we need. Since there is no way that Itachi is just going to let us take Sakura back, I might be able to have Sasuke just distract Itachi and while they are fighting take Sakura.

_Thunk…_

Problem with that is Sasuke is nowhere near Itachi's level of expertise. Maybe I'll have someone help him? Humph, like he'd allow someone else to help him with his revenge. Hmm, I don't know but I'll have to think of something soon.

_Thunk…thunk…_

I'm getting ahead of myself I still have to read the message that Itachi sent to Tsunade. It may have additional commands.

_Thunk_

The Hyuuga Estate had high metal gates and a fence resembling prison bars, and that's exactly what they were. They were meant to keep people with Hyuuga secrets in. Pristine lawns stretched out to meet the gates, dotted with the occasional tall trees, extending towards the rear of the compound to the Hyuuga training grounds. The main compound itself was made of pale stone matching the paleness of our eyes. It was built in a Grecian style with wide stairs, large round pillars, and a slightly slanted roof, for the rainy season.

Suddenly the door opened, and out strode Hinata. She had stopped the stuttering and had actually become competent compared to her genin days. Sakura was to thank, she had taught Hinata in ninja arts and a bit in medical jutsus and managed to get Hinata up to Jounin level rather quickly. She was a very successful jounin from what Neji had heard and was requested for many missions.

The ANBU Captain hadn't thought that Hinata had the potential to make it to jounin level, but when he'd mentioned something along those lines to Sakura about a week before their last mission, she'd stiffened and faced him, her clear orbs narrowing and she slapped me. The tall male had been shocked. No one had ever slapped him, since he was a child and had spoken too loudly at dinner when they had had important dinner quests. Then she hissed furiously at him that people change and that he had better never say that again or she would help Hinata kill him herself, future clan heir or not.

Also she had told him that with the type of training that Hiashi gave her, it was unlikely that she would have lived two more years if she had continued that line of training because it was too hard on Hinata's body and the accumulated unhealed injuries had been wearing her down physically. Making training and physical work hard particularly hard for his cousin as well as making her feel inept, which was the heart of her shyness and lack of confidence. Then Sakura said she had an appointment with Hiashi-san to discuss this matter with him after that mission.

Hinata and Sakura always trained at the old Haruno estate and Neji was pretty sure Sakura had never been to the Hyuuga compound. He decided that after she was rescued he would personally escort her to the meeting with Hiashi-sama. With that thought Neji looked expectantly at Hinata.

"Neji-san, where is Sakura-chan, she had a meeting with father when you two where done with your mission. I know you came back last night but I haven't been able to locate her yet and although she hasn't specified a specific time to meet father, he would like to know when to expect her," Hinata asked inquisitively.

"She didn't come back, Sakura-san was captured but, I'm going to find her, I leaving in less than an hour." He replied back to her. Poof! Hinata left with in a grey cloud of smoke. Neji continued up the stairs and through the door. He passed the sitting room, living room and kitchen, surprisingly lacking clan members, up the stairs where all the bedrooms were located. He continued down the long hallway, it always reminded him of a hotel hallway with rooms lined up all the way to the end of it. All it needed was an ice machine. He opened the fourth door on the right, his room. It was pretty spacious all it had was a large twin bed, a cherry wood desk, and a closet with all my clothes and ninja gear.

The Byukugan user took out all a ninja pack it was already ready to go, pre-packed with food, maps, sleeping roll, and a small medical kit. He grabbed some extra shuriken and a kunai holster and put his foot on the desk chair to attach the holster to the outside of his right thigh. Then swept my eyes around the room, making sure he didn't miss something important. Then his eyes landed on the clock on the desk. He didn't have enough time to run to the gates so he used the transportation jutsu.

Sakura heard a slight noise and woke up from her light sleep. She looked to the door but, nothing was at the door and Itachi wasn't stupid enough to allow me a window that actually opened or worked. She figured the noise must have come from a different part of the building. Sakura wasn't as tired as before and she now ad a little less than half her chakra. It was time to find an escape. Sakura heard the sound again, it sounded like metal grating together softly, just barely scraping against something else. The Captive moved toward the sound. It appeared to be coming from the bathroom. Sakura opened the door and looked around cautiously. She stopped when she saw a hole in the ceiling where there must have been a vent. An older man stuck his head through the opening and motioned with his hand to come with him. The Rosette's orbs narrowed suspiciously, just who was this guy anyways?

_Haruno Sakura, right? Come with me I'll get you out of here, _a voice resounded in her head and she widened her eyes at the older ninja. She stuck up a single finger to indicate that she would be there momentarily.

Sakura dashed into the other room and grabbed her masks and summoned her swords. Last year she had made a jutsu, so if she was ever captured she could summon the swords from anywhere and leave a false copy of them in its place. This way her captors wouldn't know she had summoned her swords or had already left. Sakura raced back into the bathroom and jumped up, with the help of chakra, to grab the edge of the opening. She swung herself up and the man put the vent lid back in place. The escaping captive followed him out. It took nearly fifteen minutes to get out of the vents, stopping and starting occasionally when they had heard any noise. Finally, Sakura and her rescuer escaped. They ended up in field where they were out in the open. Trees surrounded the clearing and the man grabbed the girl's wrist and transported them to the tree line.

The man had his back toward her and started jumping through the trees. Sakura again followed and opened her mouth to speak but, the man communicated to her through her mind again, _I'll tell you everything when we are far enough away from the Uchiha and have made camp._

Sakura closed her mouth bewildered that he knew when she was about to speak and how he could communicate to her like that. Those would be a few of the questions she would ask later, she thought while jumping through the trees at high speed hoping the Uchiha hadn't noticed she had escaped yet.

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Ok, hope you enjoyed that. Questions I'd like to answer before you ask. Hinata knows about Sakura's Anbu position since Sakura is always on missions with Neji and besides Hinata trained with Sakura. Hinata has to know that Sakura is powerful at the very least. Hiashi doesn't know he just thinks that Sakura has come to update him on Hinata's health.

-HarmonyRose-


	10. Chapter 10

Discaimer: Would I be writing this if I actually owned Naruto? That's right absolutely not.

Chapter 10: The plan

As Sakura and her rescuer continued running through the trees, the Kunoichi studied the man. He wasn't very tall, maybe about 5'6" or 5'7" He had short hair a little bit like Naturo's except it laid flat, it was a little shorter and silvery from age. He had pale skin and a few wrinkles. The man also had green eyes that were just a bit paler her own eyes. In Sakura's respected medical opinion he had to be in his early to mid fifties, but despite his age he moved efficiently, competently, and with agility. This meant he was obviously a shinobi and a decent one at that. Besides no civilian could help another person escape from Uchiha Itachi's clutches, it just wouldn't be possible. What bothered Sakura was the unknown shinobi wasn't wearing a forehead protector anywhere on his person.

"**I really just want to know who the hell he is," my inner stated. We don't need a personal profile." **

"Inner shut up! It is helpful to understand the people around you, just in case they turn out to be enemies," Sakura reproached her inner.

"_I approve of your caution little one but, I'm not an enemy so don't worry and I will discuss who I am with you in a few minutes. We are just about to make camp,"_ the man's voice invaded her personal sanctuary again.

He stopped and Sakura slowed down to a stop as well. She remained a far-enough distance away that he wouldn't be capable of touching her without Sakura having enough time to react. They made camp, he set up a multitude of complex and hidden traps around the perimeter of a slightly less dense area of the forest. Meanwhile, Sakura started a small fire and sat down on a nearby log, guarded and cautious, wearily observing the man as he sat down opposite of her. He held out some instant ramen not seeming cautious or uptight at all. Sakura took the offered food but, inconspicuously gathered a small amount of chakra into the palm of her hand and checked for poison. It never hurt to be cautious but, luckily there was no poison and she deemed it safe to eat.

"Sakura-chan," he paused, it was the first time she heard his voice aloud. It was cultured and firm. It reminded her of her father when he spook at meetings between the clans. His use of an affectionate and personal suffix confused the rosette but, she assumed that maybe since he'd rescued her he thought he could use it. He continued, "I know your going to have questions when I tell you who I am but, please wait for me to finish. I'm Ataru Haruno, your grandfather."

Shock registered on her face, he laughed lightly and sighed, "I've been pretending to be dead for a lot of years and the reason was because of you."

"Me?" Sakura asked confused.

"Yes you. I had an unusual vision about the future when you where young, about four years old I think. It was unusual because, as I'm sure you noticed it is much easier to see things that are going to happen pretty soon, and if you've ever tried to see events that take place farther into the future than your current genzougan stage allows you it is murky and there are several different possible outcomes that you see all at once. It is highly confusing. However, my vision was farther into the future than the genzougan is supposed to be able to see even at its final stage. It was of you, the only heir to the Haruno clan getting kidnapped and later killed by Itachi Uchiha. So to save you from your impending doom I decided to disappear and reappear when you needed me. I had no clue if this would work since my vision was so clear I was afraid it was set in stone. I kept checking me genzougan but I wasn't able to see anything at all. Then again my vision of you had showed me that people thought of you were a weaker ninja in your youth but, about three days ago I got a vision of you again for he first time in a few years. You were fighting Itachi and it showed you as a stronger ninja. I was pleased and hopeful that maybe you'd helped to change your own fate. Which is one of the most important life lessons; fate is never set in stone, you have the power to rise above your circumstances and people's expectations." He finished with his speech and the young woman was thoroughly shocked.

Sakura had this man's swords he was supposed to be dead. His thorough knowledge of the genzougan was all the proof Sakura needed that he was a Haruno, she too had tried to see farther into the future and he had described the result perfectly. His reason for leaving made sense to her and she only wondered what he was going to do next, "What are you planning on doing now, you can come back to Konoha and stay in Mom and Dad's old house, it you'd like," Sakura offered.

"Did they move out of the clan house?" he asked curious.

His granddaughter stared back at him surprised and sad. He didn't know. Tears gathered in her eyes and she could see the terror in his eyes, "Grandfather, they died on a mission together about two years ago." The young woman saw the anguish in his eyes, because no matter how good of a shinobi you are, strong emotions always show through your eyes.

"What were they doing on a mission, clan leaders aren't supposed to go on missions," The ANBU Cpatain could tell he was in pain and denial.

"The Hokage needed their expertise in an espionage mission, since no one else was capable enough but, it went wrong when someone sold them out." Sakura told the story to him remembering her parents. They had been the best undercover couple in Konoha before they had retired. Which was a well kept secret since they hadn't needed people trying to assassinate her parents. When she was a kid all she wanted to do was live up to their reputations. The silence fell around the two campers and the warm air made Sakura drowsy and she soon drifted off to sleep.

NEJI'S POV

Neji arrived at the Konoha gates and everyone was already there, including Kakashi-san, Sakura's chronically late genin-sensei. All the members of the group were dressed in Anbu clothing regardless of their rank since this mission was very important and secrecy was of the utmost importance. Neji nodded his head and started through the gates, when he sensed someone coming from behind him fast. He turned swiftly and looked, surprisingly an extra ninja stood clad in ANBU gear and handed me a note.

_Neji-san_

_I'm sending you with a medical ninja just in case Sakura isn't up to healing anyone or needs to be healed herself. She is a high ranking Jounin but, she doesn't have much field experience. Take care and bring back Sakura._

_Tsunade_

Neji nodded to the medical ninja, signaling her to come. "Neji Nii-san where do you want me?" the medical-nin asked

Neji froze at that, only one person called him nii-san even though she wasn't his real sister, "Hinata?"

The ninja slipped off her mask and there stood Hinata, "Hai, Hokage-sama didn't inform you she sent me in that note? When you told me Sakura-chan was kidnapped on her ANBU mission I propositioned Hokage-sama to let me help you since I'm a medical ninja and a jounin now. Sakura-chan helped me a lot and it's time I repaid her."

"Hn, in the back, keep your Byakugan on." Neji said, the shock wearing off and he observed the other teammates reactions. Naruto appeared to be amazed and Sasuke was still shocked over Sakura as an ANBU captain. Neji was sure he wasn't paying any attention to Hinata and no one else seemed to be surprised or interested. They headed toward the bridge, running full speed. They stopped near nightfall and set up camp. Sitting around the lighted fire, courtesy of Sasuke, all the ninja directed their gaze at Neji. He hadn't told anyone how he was planning to find Sakura yet.

I scanned there faces and finding determination and curiosity I sighed and began, "Getting Sakura back is going to be difficult, we can't search for her because Itachi didn't leave behind any indications of where he went. We are just going to have to get to the meeting place early and try to trick him. Sasuke-san I need you to distract him, Kakashi-san and Naruto-san will get Sakura. Hinata, heal your teammates but don't get in the way of Uchiha Itachi. Kenshin-san, Kaito-san, and Akane-san secure traps around the exchange area. I don't think the Uchiha will make it to them but, just in case. I will be waiting for the right time to kill him or at least incapacitate him so Sasuke-san can kill him." Neji finished in a grim tone, looking around he saw his teammates eyes were still full of determination.

Even Sasuke's eyes glinted with it, though he probably thought that Sakura brought on her own trouble. When Sakura was on the same gennin team with him, Neji had heard him complain, when the Uchiha didn't think that anyone was listening, that Sakura always got into trouble and he always had to rescue her. The ANBU captain knew that Sasuke didn't believe Sakura was stronger, even though the Hokage herself told him so. Plus all of the evidence points to her having a double life and if he would have paid more attention to her, he would have realized that something was up. Things such as, the increased time away from the villiage, the cut back hospital hours along with increased pay, the almost daily messages sent to Sakura's home from the Hokage through Anbu carrier birds, and maybe the increased friendship between Sakura and Neji, himself. Then again Uchiha Sasuke could never be bothered with anything that didn't involve him and his revenge.

Sasuke thought she was weak and not worth his time and he hadn't seen Sakura outside of the occasional team meeting where she went and pretended to be the same person they thought she was. Such was the life of a prideful Uchiha never noticing anything but what they wanted to see, underestimating, and eventually having to admit he was wrong. Neji couldn't wait to see Sasuke's expression when he saw what Sakura could actually do.

(A/N) Well hope you liked that chapter. I kinda feel like I babbled on and that it was useless but more will happen next time. I just have one more chapter to fix and then I will post a new one.

-HarmonyRose-


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Naruto and haven't for the last 10 chapters.

Chapter 11-Collapse

"Alright, time to go, use the same formation as yesterday. Hinata make sure to keep an eye out for enemies. Let's go!" Neji commanded and his team nodded and jumped into the trees in response.

After about 2 miles, Hinata announced that a female and a male ninja were coming up on the edge of her vision, "Neji, could you check to see if you can make out anymore details?" he turned his attention to where she had indicated and to his surprise the ANBU captain could just barely make out vague details such as gender and their state of chakra. Sakura must have found a way to help improve Hinata's eyesight.

"The women's chakra system has a great capacity for chakra. However, it is about three-fourths depleted. She seems to have traveled a great distance in a short amout of time. The man's chakra is nearly full and though he doesn't have as much as the kunoichi he still has a decent amount and a well taken care of chakra system. They could be difficult opponents but, I would like to talk to them if they are allied shinobi to Konoha. They may have seen Sakura, so keep an eye on them please Hinata," Neji replied in answer to Hinata's question.

He entrusted watching the oncoming ninjas to Hinata and kept surveillance in the front. After a few minutes of seeing nothing but trees and the occasional animal Hinata did the most un-Hinata-like thing any of the team had ever seen, she screamed at them. Neji's mild mannered cousin had screamed at them and it took Neji a minute to realize what she had said. She had said, "Look Neji, look at the female ninja. I think it is Sakura-chan! Who is the other ninja, it doesn't look like Uchiha Itachi."

Neji quickly turned his gaze toward the pair and astonishingly Hinata was right it was Sakura, but the other ninja was probably an enemy. "We will have to approach carefully. Kakashi, take your team and Hinata and rescue Sakura, the rest of us will surround the other ninja. Go."

The team leader watched the said ninjas run to get into place as the rest, Sakura's ANBU team and myself, prepared to surround the male shinobi. Like a metal spring all the tension was tightly wound in a tight coil the instant before all the Konoha ninja sprang around the man. The moment Sakura was safe, all the tension left their bodies. She was an important friend to all of the ninjas of Konoha, most of them would have died without her help at some point or another. Neji acknowledged that she was one of the few friends he would willingly protect with his life.

Neji spoke to the man that they were currently surrounding, "Who are you?"

Before the man could speak Sakura answered quickly cutting off any reply the man could make, "He's not an enemy, he's my grandfather." Neji turned and stared at her incredulously, all her grandparents were dead on her mother's side and her father's mother had died during childbirth and it was said that Ataru Haruno was killed on a mission, though his body was never found, when Sakura was just a child. "Sakura you don't have grandparents, they are all gone," her ANBU partner said puzzled.

"This is Ataru Haruno, I'd prove it to you but, you've never actually seen what by bloodlimit looks like, so I wouldn't be able to prove it since I'm low on chakra. Just trust me, he's related, so can we please leave, Itachi might be on our trail," she said eager to head back to Konoha to feel a relaxing, steamy hot, spring bath.

The ninjas started home and Neji noticed in detail the trees and scenery he had already passed by but, had neglected to notice as he was preoccupied with finding Sakura. He noticed how the woods were multiple shades of green and brown, and how the woods smelt refreshing with hints of cool pine, a variety of wildflowers, and the soft scent of a cherry blossom tree.

Neji looked over at Sakura, she wasn't faring well. She slightly stumbled occasionally, but continued down the pathway. Just as Neji started to turn stare away from her she began to collaps. Before he could catch her though Kakashi-san caught her. She had fallen unconscious, from lack of chakra and Kakashi tucked her slim frame against himself in a bridal style. Neji observed him as he smiled slightly with the barest upturn of his lips down at her. For the briefest of time the coffee-haired male despirately wanted to carry her. She was his teammate, the rest of them had abandoned her, before he squashed the idea. It would be impractical since he was recently injured and might reinjure himself if he carried her all the way to Konoha. Besides, it was just a fatherly smile that he gave to her, not that it would matter to Neji. He wasn't in any sort of relationship except friendship with the rose-haired kunoichi, so there was no reason to feel anything but, relief at Kakashi-san carrying her.

Remaining stoic and protecting his reputation as first ANBU captain, especially around one of Konoha's finest ANBU teams and the famed males of team seven was important, he didn't need to act overly protective of his teammate, that would just arise suspicions that weren't true. That was one thing Neji didn't need, gossip. He was already having every mother throw their daughters at him, daily. Some even had the nerve to throw their married daughters at Neji and suggest an affair. If Neji married anyone, (which he was pretty sure he did need to relatively soon as it was approaching his twentieth birthday in less than eleven months) that would completely collapse the image he had built up over the years. He needed to get married to become the leader of the Hyuuga clan but, he want to marry someone strong, who wouldn't ruin his image of a good potential leader he had tried to become, not someone that throws themselves at him constantly. Naruto wasn't the only one who wanted to be a respected leader. Back to the present though, Neji thought it was strange that he would feel fiercely protective of Sakura and figured that he would just ignore those feelings. Besides maybe Kakashi-san would become tired later on and need to have someone else carry her…

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I'll be uploading a new chapter soon I'm already about six hundred words into it. Please don't kill me for taking forever to update. I posted an entire other story, but now my focus is solely on this one.

HarmonyRose


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I sadly don't own Naruto. If I did I wouldn't care if you reviewed this story or not, because I would be rich and it wouldn't matter.

Chapter 12- Tantalizing Teasing

Sakura woke up just as the ninjas started to slow down to enter the gates of Konoha, the guards generally didn't like it when on-duty shinobi dashed through the gates at full speed, they had mentioned something about not being able to identify who it was. Sakura had never really paid attention, since usually when she was on a mission she flew through the gates eager to report and get home. It isn't like they knew who she was anyway. As the rescue team approached the gates the rose-haired kunoichi noticed that Neji was carrying her. She was embarrassed and blushed, she felt that he shouldn't have to cart her around, "Neji, please stop for a minute."

"Why?" he asked as he slowed to a halt.

"For my mask and so I can walk," Sakura knew he understood. She needed her mask, because when people saw her carried by an ANBU they thought she was too weak. She had the reputation as the weakest member of team seven and people wouldn't see that the female of team seven wore a captain's uniform, or she was an ANBU at all. They would see that it was Haruno Sakura and she was being carried through the gates because, she couldn't walk by herself.

With the ANBU mask and uniform. Sakura could be a different person. Nobody could see the vibrant green eyes or dramatic pink hair. Everyone took her seriously, injured or not. An ANBU wasn't someone to mess with. The circumstances sucked, Sakura could already recognize the looks Sasuke and Kakashi were giving her. They didn't believe Sakura was as strong as the bingo book stated. Kakashi should have at least aware that she was talented in ninjutsu, but the fact that he still had doubts about her aptitude, wounded her. On the other hand, it was laughable how easily the second ANBU captain could tell that her ANBU teammates were having trouble putting together the sweet rosette medic-ninja that occasionally patched them up with their hard-ass captain. Sakura just wanted to know and perhaps she would voice this thought later, 'Why was it that Uchiha Sasuke could come back to the village and everyone accepted him despite his reputation, but no one would believe how strong I was strong now, despite my reputation?' The ironies of life the never failed to amuse the little kunoichi.

The shinobi went directly to the hokage's office to report in, and have Tsunade heal some of Sakura's injuries. She only trusted Tsunade and Shizune to heal her wounds and wouldn't let another medical-nin anywhere near her wounds. Also they had to deal with Sakura's grandfather's sudden appearance. While the ninja were waiting for Tsunade to come into the office space the elderly ninja asked, "Who is the current Hokage?"

"You mean you don't even know that baa-chan is the hokage," Naruto said in a disbelieving tone.

"I didn't mean to insult your grandmother. I just haven't paid much attention to politics lately. What is her name?" he replied in a diplomatic voice.

"She isn't really his Grandmother but, she has been a mother figure to me and Naruto, since we haven't had any parents," Sakura commented so that her grandfather could comprehend the actual situation in Konoha, while waiting for Naruto to reply his original question. Before the unpredictable ninja could answer the door swung open and in walked the Hokage herself. Sakura watched her grandfather's face while still being partially supported by Neji, and she was surprised to see his composed mask slip for just a second, although she wasn't sure why it had.

The Hokage immediately addressed her apprentice, "Are you alright, Sakura? How did you escape from Itachi?"

"I am mostly fine I have a few injuries, but mostly I am just tired and chakra-deprived. As for escaping, I had help in the form of my grandfather, Ataru Haruno, who was believed to be dead, but was just waiting for me to become captured to help save me. In light of his aid in finding me I would like to request that he be allowed back into Konoha without retribution for abandoning the village," the young medical-nin stated in a professional manner all the while hoping, underneath her mask of professionalism that Tsunade would say yes.

Tsunade's gaze swung over to Sakura's grandfather, her eyes widened and she gasped, "Ataru?"

"Hello, Tsunade-chan," Sakura stared dumbfounded at her grandfather. How did he know the Hokage?

"He helped teach me chakra control, so I could become a better medical ninja," Tsunade answered everyone's unspoken question.

After a brief, but no less awkward pause the Godaime spoke again in an authoritative tone, "Since, I know of no charges against you and you left for a noble reason. You are allowed back into Konoha with no consequences. You are all dismissed."

Sakura, having been healed by Shizune, started walking with the Hyuuga part of the team. Her grandfather teleported straight out of the Hokage's office most likely to mourn his dead son and daughter-in-law. When Sakura and the Hyuuga's reached the streets, Hinata was the first to address Sakura, "Sakura-chan, you have a meeting with my father scheduled for later this evening. Would you like to wait until tomorrow to have it?"

"That's today! It's okay don't reschedule, I'll go eat and get ready for it," Sakura exclaimed, she had forgotten all about the meeting and now she had to dash make herself presentable.

Sakura took a step away from the Hyuuga cousins ready to sprint off before Neji stopped her. "Sakura, I'll take you out to dinner and escort you the Hyuuga compound. After all we did complete a mission together," he said gently taking hold of her elbow and leading her to the ramen stand not to far away.

Sakura quickly fell in step next to Neji. She figured she had enough time to get a quick bite to eat, especially if it was just at Ichiraku ramen. As the couple settled into their seats at the ramen stand and ordered their food, they struck up a conversation about various subjects, including clan politics, when Naruto was going to ask Hinata out, the newest ninja weapons, and their favorite foods. Meanwhile Neji was trying to find the right time to apologize. Unfortunately, he didn't find the right time so, he bluntly inserted his apology right in the middle of a discussion on the Nara clan's shadow techniques, "I should have been able to do more during your fight with the Uchiha. I am sorry I failed you."

"There was nothing either of us could have done. We were both exhausted and if you don't stop blaming yourself for every little thing that you could have done better last mission. I will rough you up between a couple of trees. Maybe having your head knocked into a few of them will knock some sense into you," the Kunoichi lightened up the sorrowful mood Neji had put them in with his abrupt apology.

Neji was a little surprised at her attitude, normally when something went wrong she cursed anything that was near her, especially if someone brought the subject up again. Perhaps she had already forgiven him. He looked over to give her a half smile smirk, when he finally realized the state her uniform was in. The formfitting pants were ripped at the thigh, revealing some tantalizing creamy white skin and there was a Kunai slash at her stomach, giving a clear view of her flat abdomen. Neji concluded that this was probably why there had been so many men whistling. He, one of the few ice cubes of Konoha would have been tempted to do the same had he not known about Sakura's strength.

"Let's go Sakura," Neji said straight to the point and not wanting to admit that he just couldn't stand the male attention she was drawing and that if he didn't get out of there, her wardrobe malfunction was going to put her in a seriously uncomfortable position, between him and the nearest flat surface. It wasn't that he was jealous or anything, he just didn't want Sakura to get taken advantage of, at least that's what he kept telling himself.

Neji hurriedly pulled his companion along toward her home. Sakura, tired of being manhandled demanded that Neji release her immediately. She had plenty of time to change clothes and arrive on time for her meeting. To which Neji absentmindedly replied, "Hn."

The rosette woman's eyes narrowed in agitation. She couldn't believe it. He didn't release her, and he only grunted in answer. 'Who did he think he was!' the kunoichi thought. No one dared defy Haruno Sakura, and made it out alive. Sakura decided she would just give some pay-back to the stubborn mule (umm or male, that works too). She knew just how to get him back too. She would use all men's weakness, physical stimulation.

The cunning kunoichi drew trace amounts of her warm chakra to her fingertips and lightly brushed her fingers tantalizingly over the sensitive tips of his digits. She rested her slim fingers there for a moment. When Neji gave no physical reaction to this, the Kunoichi drew her fingers away. As Sakura removed her fingers, Neji's index and middle finger twitched, bereft of her presence. The young medical-nin mentally grinned like a Cheshire cat. She was having an effect on the uptight Hyuuga male. Then Sakura gently tugged on the ends of his coffee-colored hair, just enough for him to have a pleasant tingling on his scalp with her other hand.

Neji was having a hard time controlling himself, the way she moved her hands over him was driving him insane. It was innocently sensual and at the same her chakra was like a drug, one that lulled the receiver into a peaceful enchantment. Neji was doing everything in order to not show her effect on him, and it was fine until she stopped rubbing his fingers. The Byakugan user was horrified when his fingers twitched from lack of contact with hers. It was too much though when she lightly tugged on his hair. His mind conjured up all sorts of fantasy scenarios where she could jerk gently on his hair like this.

He couldn't bear the antagonizing slow torture Sakura was putting him through. He finally snapped and used the teleportation jutsu to appear in Sakura's crowded home. Immediately he pushed her against a wall, and crashed his lips against her smooth ones, while simultaneously pulling her close to his chest. He was paying the rosette back for the spell she had him under earlier. He sucked harshly on her bottom lip, exciting his partner to action. She snaked her arms around his neck and tangled her fingers in his long tousled hair pressing his warm mouth closer to hers. She teasingly licked his bottom lip. Neji at this point was lost in a cloud of lust and animal instincts. Sakura pulled away abruptly and laughed at Neji's shell-shocked expression of 'what hell just happened', "That's what you get for not letting me walk by myself."

Neji stood a little dazed in Sakura's living room as the little minx walked leisurely into her bedroom to change into some proper clothes to meet his Uncle.

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I hope you enjoyed that chapter, tension is slowly building between them. I'm excited for next chapter, so you should be too. I'm sorry this took so look to update but, I fixed all the other chapters and changed them into third person instead of first, so if you haven't read the fixed chapters yet, you might want to. It flows so much better this way. If you have any questions please ask me.

Please review and let me know if you have any ideas. I would love to hear them.

HarmonyRose


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Doesn't that just suck?

Chapter 13: Surprising News

By the time Sakura had emerged from her room Neji had composed and convinced himself that there was no way he was attracted to his mission partner. She had merely used a sneaky ploy against him and like all good Kunoichi, had succeeded in getting her way. However, when Sakura was walking towards him, in the red and white billowing Haruno clan robes, Neji couldn't stop the small voice in his head that stated, 'you might not be attracted to your mission partner, but you sure as hell are attracted to Haruno Sakura.' Since, the little voice in his head wouldn't be quiet Neji spent the whole way to the Hyuuga grounds in comfortable silence with Sakura trailing along beside him. She was quiet and understanding that he needed his thoughts organized.

When they reached the Hyuuga compound Neji quickly led the medical-nin through a seemingly endless and confusing maze of hallways. He stopped at a door that appeared to be the same as all the other doors. The Hyuuga heir rapped gently on the door and announced her presence, "Haruno Sakura-sama to see you, Hiashi-sama."

"Come in," a strong male voice came from the other side of the wooden door. Neji opened the door for Sakura and nodded almost imperceptibly at her. Sakura nodded her head in acknowledgement and proceeded into the room, closing the door softly behind her.

"Hello, Hyuuga-san," Sakura greeted the stern-looking elder man.

"Haruno-san," he answered back.

"I will get straight to the point. The training your clan gave to Hinata-san was killing her, and will probably kill Hanabi-san too if you don't stop training her that way," Sakura bluntly stated in a clear voice. Hiashi was offended, but didn't let his emotion leak out into his chakra signal and stated condescendingly," That is the way the Hyuuga clan has trained its members since it has began."

"Not so, Hiashi-san you have only started to train your females the same way as the males when your late wife suggested you should train the heir to the family in more than just the ways of geisha. The muscle to fat content in women is different than that of males. The training your daughters received changes the proportion of the fat content of their bodies and messes up the biological processes in a female's body, creating chaos and resulting in illness. On top of that when I examined Hinata-san she had multiple unhealed injuries, making the training almost impossible for her to complete. I'm surprised she has even lived this long," Sakura countered the elder clan leader.

"How did you find out about her injuries? She hasn't been admitted to the hospital recently and my daughter is a jounin. It is unlikely she would be placed on a mission with someone who is just a chunnin," Hiashi addressed her domineeringly, trying to prove her wrong.

"Looks can be deceiving Hiashi-sama perhaps you would like to see my abilities for yourself?" the medical-nin asked the clan leader with barely concealed contempt. 'How dare he, who does he think he is to think that low of me, I'll reveal to him my actual strength,' thought Sakura and for once Inner Sakura agreed whole-heartedly. No one was ever going to belittle her again.

"Alright, little Kunoichi lets see what you can do, we will head to the training ground then we will see the difference in skill," the clan leader smugly announced his agreement to the proposal. He had been looking for something to vent his anger and this delicate little female would be a perfect candidate. He wouldn't rough her up too bad, just enough for her to show some respect. He was sick of all the clan leaders that demanded his attention everyday and this weak medical-ninja just insulted his training techniques. Hinata was fine, she was now a jounin and stronger than he had ever seen before.

"Lead the way," the Kunoichi gaily announced ready to have some recognition and show the smug baka. Hiashi stood from his place behind his desk and preceded his guest out towards the training grounds, which were conveniently located right outside his office door. Hiashi had to commend the girl at least she was willing to follow through with her suggestion. He was starting to have a slight respect for her, she wasn't spineless like many of the people he knew. Now if only he could find a strong Kunoichi with that type of attitude for his nephew, then he would know that he left the clan and his nephew in safe hands.

Neji had decided to train while Sakura was talking to his uncle. She could handle herself, she was generally a smooth talker. So, as long as she didn't insult Hiashi-sama she would be fine. He had only been out training for a few minutes when he watched Hiashi walk out of his office and onto the training field toward him with Sakura following close behind. Neji stopped and waited until they were close to him. "What brings you out here?" asked Neji, already having a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach that the answer wasn't going to be something he liked.

"Neji, referee this match," the clan lord demanded of his nephew.

"Sakura, you'll reveal.." Neji started whispering to her, trying to dissuade her from fighting.

Sakura cut off the Hyuuga heir, "I know, don't worry about it. It's not like I have to hide it from my team anymore." Neji nodded, it was her choice and there was clearly nothing he could do to deter her. He was proud of her and he unconsciously smiled at her when she wasn't looking, but he soon realized what he was doing and wiped the expression off his face. He looked around to see if anyone saw him smile and noticed his uncle looking at him oddly.

"Hyuuga-sama how about a little wager, almost like gambling but, not quite that extreme? If you win, I'll tell you how I know about Hinata's condition and never bring up your substandard training for your daughters but, if I win, you'll hear me out and then make your own judgment calls," Sakura proposed.

Hiashi thought out her proposal, there was nothing for him to lose except for pride if she beat him. If he won, which he was sure he was going to, the woman would lose respect and her argument without even a chance to explain it. He could tell that this was at least somewhat important to her. "Alright, I accept," said Hiashi neutrally.

Sakura grinned and spoke excitedly (how many people actually get to spar with the head of the Hyuuga clan?), "Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, or Kenjutsu? Bloodline limits or not?"

Hiashi answered calmly, "Taijutsu and Kenjutsu. Bloodline limits and chakra are allowed." At the clan leader's answer, Sakura carefully removed the top layer of her clan robes, leaving her clad in loose dark grey pants and a form-fitting white shirt. She summoned her Katana and waited for the Hyuuga to get his. As soon as the clan lord retrieved his sword Neji started the match with, "Begin."

'Go apparently wasn't a sophisticated enough word to start a sparing match' thought Sakura. She was decided to start off with just Kenjutsu, then after she disarmed him she would play around a little bit and show him her chakra enhanced strength. 'Hopefully, she would ruin their pristine training grounds too bad,' with that last wicked thought Sakura launched into the fight.

Sakura attacked on her opponent's left side, he blocked it. She pushed her sword downward quickly and used the momentum to leap off the ground and back flip over the Hyuuga. Hiashi quickly turned around and blocked another quick attack. The speed at which the kunoichi was moving was astounding and Hiashi had a hard time keeping up with it, so he turned on his Byakugan so he could see her. It was somewhat like being able to see in the ultraviolet spectrum. The chakra emitted bright light to his Byakugan and all he needed to see was a splash of bright light, then it wouldn't be so difficult to track her movements, because she was literally a beacon of light to him.

The first indication that this kunoichi was much more powerful than he had previously been told was her speed and the second was her Kenjutsu, it was amazing and she probably could have made ANBU with just that, the third indication was the color of her chakra. It was unlike anything Hiashi had ever seen. Most ninja's chakra was a soft blue, medics sometimes had green, but this woman's chakra was a blinding white. "Haruno-san, I am beginning to suspect that you aren't exactly who I was informed you were," The Hyuuga lord said as he tried to break through her iron clad defense.

"What did you hear about me?" Sakura asked, she was curious as to what people knew about her.

"My advisors informed me that you were a chunnin and the only Haruno left, which made you the clan leader only a couple years ago," the clan leader told her still struggling to even make a hit on her.

"Your information is lacking, even compared to most clans. I will fill you in. I am Haruno Sakura, an original member of Konoha's team 7 which includes the Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and the Copy ninja Kakashi. I also apprenticed under the Hokage. There I learned medical nin-jutsu and super strength, this is when I earned chunnin status as well as when my parents died and I became the clan leader. However, after that not many people know much of what I've done since I was fifteen, only the Hokage, Neji, and Hinata-chan knew until just a few days ago when it was revealed to my teammates. Over the last few years I've become the second ANBU captain, head of the Konoha hospital, and I trained Hinata-chan as well," Sakura easily said while launching into another set of offensive attacks.

Hiashi took just a moment after her narrative to decide what to do, he back-flipped to the opposite side of the field and called a stop to the match, "If you are who you say you are, then I will listen to your counsel for my daughters, and my advisors are in trouble for not telling me such pertinent information," he said smirking a little at the woman in front of him. He also noted the lack of honorific on his nephew's name.

Sakura chuckled a little at the Hyuuga advisor's expense. The two walked back into Hiashi's office space and discussed Hinata's and all future Kunoichi of Hyuuga's training. On Sakura's way out of the meeting, Hiashi-sama asked her to let Neji know to come into his office.

When Neji went into his uncle's office he was unprepared for Hiashi-sama's advice, "Neji, before your twentieth birthday you need to have a wife. The elders have suggested to you that you marry a strong Kunoichi from another clan and so far I have seen no one else that fits this description like Haruno Sakura. She meets all the elders' requirements, you already have a bond with her, and she obviously trusts you with her secrets and life, since I know you've been on more missions with the second ANBU captain than your own ANBU team. Besides, I saw the way you looked at her on the training fields, you are attracted to her at the very least, so I think you should pursue her." Neji was flabbergasted. He was not in love with his mission partner but, the little voice in the back of his mind reminded him that he had already had this conversation with himself once today and that it was coming up just a little too often for there not to be some truth to it.

* * *

(A/N) Sorry I was hoping to have this out by Friday but, it didn't quite work out. The whole seeing in the ultraviolet spectrum is true. Flies see in the ultraviolet spectrum and that why it is so hard to kill them. When you think you're being sneaky and that they can't see your hand while it's behind them, it isn't true. Your hand emits UV light and to flies it is like having a spotlight right above them. This is also why most fly swatters are blue or green. They emit less UV rays, thus making it easier to kill those buggers.

Neji is in Denial. It's kind of fun to write, though this chapter didn't turn out quite the way I planned, I like it. I hope you liked this chapter. If you did I'm glad. Please review, it's really encouraging to read people's response to the chapter. Again, if you haven't read the previous chapters that I've changed, please do. It flows 10x better. I realize that there are still a few mistake and places I forgot to change the tense. I will eventually fix those.

Again please review.

HarmonyRose


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: This is so degrading... I can't believe I have to admit this. I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 14: Wouldn' t you like to know

Sakura knew that both of her teams wouldn't just accept the explanation they were given by the Hokage without a conformation of it's truthfulness from her

Sakura knew that both of her teams wouldn't just accept the explanation they were given by the Hokage without a conformation of it's truthfulness from her. Her teammates were just too stubborn and hardheaded, although the medic-nin mused stubbornness seemed to be an inherent trait within all exemplary shinobi, her included. She knew she had a stubborn streak in her and she somewhat pitied anyone that got in the way while she was determined to get what she wanted. The little stunt Sakura had pulled, kissing Neji, earlier in the day was a prime example. Neji hadn't listened to her wishes so, she decided to make him.

Just then Inner Sakura spoke out, using a sly tone, "Oh, you mean that little kiss you shared with Neji had nothing to do with that little crush you've had on him since he acknowledged the progress you made with his cousin Hinata?"

Sakura had a faint blush on her cheeks but, before she could speak her alter ego started again, "I would never have known, the kiss was all for show. I seem to recall that you were struggling to breakaway from that searing kiss and for a few seconds you had no coherent thoughts left in your head."

Sakura was bright red by the time Inner Sakura finished, she knew she liked Neji and trusted him with her life. He had been her mission partner for over a year and there was something honest and trustworthy in him, despite his troubled childhood.

"What are you thinking about?" Haruno Ataru asked his granddaughter.

Sakura looked up quickly, she must have been really deep in thought she hadn't noticed her grandfather approach her. Sakura blushed slightly and her grandfather grinned a little, "Perhaps you were thinking about a certain Hyuuga?"

"Were you listening in on my thoughts again? How do you do that anyway?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Walk with me back to the Haruno compound and I will tell you all of the Haruno clan abilities," her grandfather began walking and Sakura stood for a moment in surprise and then hurried to catch up to him.

* * *

Neji was still surprised when he walked out of his Uncles's study, he hadn't expected a marriage suggestion, but marrying Haruno Sakura wasn't a bad idea. He wondered why he hadn't thought of it before. The niggling voice in the back of his mind said something that suspiciously sounded like, "Because you were too busy trying to deny your attraction to her."

Ignoring that little voice the coffee-haired man contemplated how he was going to show personal interest in Sakura instead of just professional interest. Training was out, apparently, it showed more of a competitive friend relationship than a romantic one, or at least according to what Tenten had informed him of when he was twelve. Perhaps dinner after their next mission would work, except Neji remembered they always treated each other after every mission. Then he would just have to take her out to dinner tonight, maybe he should take her to the upper class restaurant that opened last week. Neji was fairly certain that was the way other males showed interest in females, along with tokens of affection. His first instinct was to give the woman kunai and other weapons, however he vaguely remembered Tenten saying that if he ever gave her weapons she would kill him with them. His fleeting relationship with Tenten had been odd to say the least.

The future clan leader still had a few problems, what would he bring her and what if she said no? Then Neji was hit with a stroke of genius, whenever Rock Lee would ask Sakura on a date he brought flowers. Even though Sakura always rejected Lee, Neji was certain it had more to do with his overwhelming 'youthfulness' than the flowers. As for Sakura agreeing to the dinner he would just have to see her now, ask and then reserve a place at the restaurant if she said yes.

The determined male started off toward Sakura's place, but when he reached her place her chakra signature wasn't anywhere near the place, so Neji closed his eyes and searched Konoha for her chakra. The Byakugan user found her signal headed toward the old Haruno compound so he hurried toward her. As he got nearer and nearer to her chakra signature he became increasingly anxious, what if she rejected him, would they still be able to remain friends. He wasn't sure he would just want to stay friends with Haruno Sakura. He wanted all of her and he was sure that it would break him if he had to pretend to be just friends with the cherry blossom.

When Neji was close enough to see Sakura he realized that someone else was with her, it seemed to be her grandfather. He would have to wait to talk with her until after they were done. Until Neji finished talking to her, he knew the fluttering butterflies in his stomach wouldn't stop. Neji slowed to an easy walk, just moving fast enough to overtake Sakura at the entrance to the Haruno compound. Due to the ninja training the Hyuuga heir had, he was able to hear what Haruno Ataru was talking with his granddaughter about.

"I would like to see you settled before I die. Maybe you should marry into one of the prominent clans in Konoha, with your bloodline limit you would only add to their strengths and think of your children. Your children could be immensely strong, carrying two bloodline limits, or perhaps it would create a new kekkai genkai altogether," the older man mused to her.

"Exactly which clan do you think I should marry into?" The cherry-haired female wryly asked.

"Hmm… maybe the Uchiha, what was the name of your teammate," her grandfather continued, paying no mind to the rapidly blanching woman next to him, "Hyuuga, Nara, or Inuzuka would do as well."

"There is _no way_ in _hell_ I would marry Uchiha Sasuke. All the Nara's are exceptionally lazy and dogs aren't my forte. I like them but, I'm not marrying into a family of dogs," Sakura retorted, indignant at first then becoming more logical and reasonable after making it clear she wouldn't marry her ex-teammate. Actually, she was hoping to kick his ass all the way to star country tomorrow morning.

Neji noted she hadn't mentioned anything about the Hyuuga. Either Sakura wouldn't mind marrying into the Hyuuga clan or she didn't even consider him a contender. The thought made Neji even more anxious.

"What about the Hyuuga clan? You didn't mention anything about them," the older shinobi asked conspiratorially, inwardly smirking. He knew he was making both his granddaughter and the tall Hyuuga behind him squirm. Sakura hadn't noticed the presence of her friend some feet behind her but, Haruno Ataru had. It was the life of a presumably dead ninja. He had to fend for himself, so out of habit he was constantly on guard. He could feel the Hyuuga's nervous chakra and was inwardly gleeful he could make him nervous enough to leak feelings into his chakra signature.

The kunoichi blushed profusely and stuttered her answer, "I-I have n-no-nothing against them," and then continued on in a stronger voice that belied the truth, "but that doesn't mean I want to marry one."

The Kunoichi's grandfather chuckled a little, "Of course not."

The chocolate haired shinobi took Sakura's words at face value and became more determined to win her over. He would think of this like a mission, except he would have a personal interest in it, and that would be the determining factor. Neji caught up to Sakura and greeted the two strolling shinobi. He asked to speak privately with the blushing blossom, so Ataru walked ahead of the two with a knowing grin on his face.

* * *

Sakura had never been so nervous about going on a date before, she behaved uncharacteristically; she had stuttered and blushed profusely throughout the walk to the restaurant. When she had opened her door, Neji had offered her, her favorite flowers, a mixture of Amaryllis' and Peonies. They were a beautiful mix of scarlet and soft pink. She was stunned, the petite medic-nin didn't think he could be that thoughtful.

Sakura noticed how ironic the choice of flowers seemed to be. Although, the pink-haired medic-nin was sure Neji hadn't known, the pretty pink Peonies were a symbol of romance and an omen of a happy marriage, everything Sakura wished for her future, while the Amaryllis' seemed to represent her ill remembered past.

Sakura reminisced in the old tale. The legend started with Amaryllis, a shy and timid nymph. The nymph fell deeply in love with a shepherd named Alteo. The shepherd had immense strength said to rival Hercules' and the beauty of the Greek god Apollo. The nymph's love was unrequited and hoping she could win the shepherd over, she wished to give him the one thing he desired most, a flower so distinctive, it hadn't existed on earth yet. The nymph sought the advice of the oracle, a powerful woman prophesier in the ancient city of Delphi.

Amaryllis followed the advice of the oracle and dressed in a maiden's white gown and stood outside Alteo's door for a full 30 nights, piercing her heart with a golden arrow each night. When Alteo opened his door, there on his doorstep was a deep and striking crimson flower, tragically sprung from the thick, powerful, scarlet, blood of Amaryllis' heart. The flower itself symbolized pride, determination, and radiant beauty. The flowers were beautiful, albeit a little ironic, and their meanings portrayed the different courses of her life. But Sakura was not going to let Amaryllis' fate play out in her life.

Near the end of the walk to the restaurant Sakura was feeling a little more confident. She could do it nothing had changed, her ANBU teammate had just showed a little more than professional interest. It was nothing big. Yeah right. Sakura didn't even believe the crap she was trying to tell herself. She was on a date with one of Konoha's top eligible bachelors whom she happened to have the tiniest crush on, she only wished she knew if he liked her back.

"Tiny crush? Darling you are hopelessly in love with him already. If he had died on your last mission you would have been devastated. You probably wouldn't have come out of your room for weeks. It's your one tragic flaw. You fall irrevocably in love too easily. I just hope we don't end up paying for it some day,"inner Sakura imparted some surprisingly wise words with her taunting.

At Inner Sakura's voice the pinkette smiled cleverly with a hint of mischief laced throughout her countenance. She loved her grandfather.

_"Did you ever wonder why your mother stopped you from pulling so many of your stunts when you were little? It was because all Harunos can read minds… at least to some extent. There are a few restrictions. Harunos could only read other Haruno's mind when they were talking to their Inners, otherwise the inners just blocked out the technique. Inners are another one of the added bonuses our clan has…"_ the disembodied voice of her grandfather played eerily accurate through her mind.

The Kunoichi did exactly what her grandfather told her to she sent Inner Sakura into Neji's mind and waited for her alter ego to report back to her. She wasn't disappointed. When her Inner came back she told her Neji definitely had more than a professional interest in her. The rosette had the feeling there was more and pointedly asked her Inner if she was withholding anything.

Inner Sakura smirked, happy to be playing the game I-know-something-you-don't-know, and replied as innocently as possible, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Knowing it was useless to even try to get anything else out of her inner, the petite woman promptly gave up. From that point on the date went well, no more blushing randomly while walking or tripping over her own two small feet because, she was too nervous. In fact Sakura was glad she dressed up a little, the charming male took her to a fine restaurant, where they were immediately escorted to a charming table that overlooked a blossoming garden.

Sakura engaged the pearl-eyed shinobi in a conversation but, she could tell he was either apprehensive or in a mission mindset, because all he gave were one or two answers. He wouldn't even grace her with a full sentence. After a few minutes the two lapsed into a relaxed silence.

Neji had seemed contemplative for a few minutes before a flash of resolve overtook the look and he uncharacteristically broke the silence. "Sakura," he spoke gently, in his normal calm in collected manner, but there was something a little off… he seemed tenser.

"I realize this is an unorthodox way to begin a first date but, I feel now is a good time to mention this," this from the man who had little idea about relationship customs at all.

"We have been teammates for a long time and acquaintances for even longer. However, it was over our time as teammates, that I have steadily been gaining an interest in you. It was not until my uncle brought it up, after your spar, that I recognized it to be something deeper than lust, which would have been easy to ignore," the prodigy continued his liquid silvery gaze entrancing and capturing the startled emerald orbs of his companion.

"I'm falling in love with you. If you can't ever share those same feelings then I won't mention this again and we can go back to just friends and mission partners. No questions asked," the sincerity was written deep in his eyes and Sakura had seen the flash of pain when he offered to let her forget about him. Sakura's eyes softened from their initial shocked expression and melted into compassion. She would have felt the same pain if she made an offer like that.

"I don't think you need to worry. I've been falling for you too, ever since we were paired up as partners. Come to think of it I'm pretty sure my grandfather knows too, from the way he was teasing me about marrying into another clan," Sakura finished childishly pouting a little, remembering her grandfather's merciless teasing from earlier.

After the dinner, Neji escorted his date home. Neither one minded the silence as they were caught up in their own thoughts.

* * *

Sakura walked cheerfully towards the training grounds where team seven normally trained. Team seven as well as her ANBU team should be there already. She had sent a training summons to her team to meet there. Sakura jumped into the trees, hiding her chakra signature as she neared the group to watch their interactions. Naruto and Kenshin seemed to be heatedly arguing over which food was better ramen or tempura and everyone except, Sasuke, who was too aloof, was looking at the two amused by their antics.

Sakura jumped silently to the ground and keeping to the ephemeral early morning shadows neared the group. She slinked, unseen by any of the ninja, behind Sasuke. Not breathing to be careful not to stir up any air current that would tell of her presence. She leaned near the exposed skin of his ear and let the breath she had been holding. "Boo," Sasuke tensed and drew a kunai at his adversary.

He was shocked to find Sakura giggling to herself where his enemy was supposed to be. "Gotcha," the rosette seemed to grin at the otherwise imposing male.

He grunted and after their initial shock, Sakura's ANBU team began laughing at his expense. Their captain just continued to surprise them. That is if she was truly their captain whom they still had doubts about. Haruno Sakura's reputation preceded her as a brilliant medic, packing one hell of a punch, but lacking in field expertise. Their captain was brilliant on the field, so unless this Haruno Sakura showed them proof, there was no way the elite ninjas would believe her.

"So, none of you believe who I say I am? That's too bad. I'll just have to prove it," her fellow ninja stared at her in surprise it was almost like she read their minds.

"Who wants to lose first?" Naruto and Kenshin fell for the taunting first.

"Sakura-chan there is no way I will lose to you. I'm going to be Hokage!" Naruto shouted while he charged headfirst into battle with the easily riled ANBU following. The two seemed to be on a wave length because they started attacking simultaneous on either side of the kunoichi using Taijutsu.

With a gleeful laugh Sakura started her own string of Taijutsu. A flurry of fists and the occasional sweep of color, the only sign of round kicks, were the only distinguishable features of the sandwiched Kunoichi as she flew through her moves able to keep both knuckled headed ninja at bay. Finally after a few minutes of displaying the Taijutsu prowess she had, she stopped fooling around and sent a chakra enhanced fist toward Naruto. It sent the blonde bombshell through no less than three trees, but Sakura didn't look. The moment the ANBU was distracted Sakura launched a powerful roundhouse kick toward his stomach. He flew and bounced gracelessly off a weathered tree several feet from the battle.

The other two elite ANBU shook their heads at their idiotic teammate and knew this was Konoha's Second ANBU captain. Her style was too close for it to be untrue. Sakura raised glinting eyes to her ANBU team. "No Sakura-san, you don't need to show us we believe you now. We'll take the idiot to the hospital to get healed," one sighed out.

It was only Sasuke, Sai, and Kakashi that were still there and standing. She called out to them teasing evident in her tone, "You want to have some fun too? Alright just wait a moment." The three watched edgily as she reached toward downward, seeming to go toward her kunai holster, before sharply veering toward a back pocket. She drew her hand out of the pocket and withdrew…what the… a blindfold?! Sasuke was totally confused now.

She tied the blindfold around her eyes she smiled, "This will be the only way I can convince you Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi's eyes lit with comprehension but, Sasuke was still as confused as ever. Before he could ask, Sasuke saw the copy-nin was already mid-way through a set of ninjutsu hand signs and the emotionless artist was finished drawing one of his beasts, so Sasuke launched into an attack of his own.

Ninjutsus continued to hurdle at Sakura but, she merely dodged or countered the attacks. Sasuke and the other nins were getting frustrated and decided to work together. It was then Sakura took Sai out of the battle. The Kunoichi sent her first offensive jutsu out, and before Sai could counter it, he was caught in a sleeping genjutsu and bound by white strands of chakra.

One down two to go. In a burst of speed Sasuke could only see as a streak of color through his Sharingan, Sakura attacked all of Kakashi's chakra, leaving the infamous copy-nin immobile. His teammate turned to him and he turned off his Sharingan, a signal he was done fighting. Gruffly he said, "Alright, I believe you. Take off the blindfold."

She removed it to reveal grayish eyes Sasuke had never seen before. He was shocked, she didn't seem to have broken a sweat though she was panting slightly, and when did she get a bloodline limit? Whatever, she was strong and he was attracted to that. He stared a bit at her.

"What's a matter Uchiha, cat got your tongue?" she said smirking.

He continued to stare and then getting a grip, he said, "no, but I wish you did." With a sexy tilt of his lips, leaving no doubt of what he was talking about.

"No, you don't, I'd be likely to rip it out," replied Sakura with a devious smirk, "Maybe I could sell it to one of your fangirls."

* * *

I'm done with this chapter! Sorry for the long wait but, I've had midterms and I currently have the flu and have missed way too many days of school. As compensation for taking so long that chapter is longer than what I normally post. This was a little bit of a filler-ish type chapter but next chapter is the end and there will be some action in it. I know I kinda rushed Neji's and Sakura's romance but, they've known and trusted each other for over a year. That was plenty of time for them to fall in love (At least I hope). Anyway please review, I kind of want to make it past the hundred mark and of course I'd love to read your thoughts on the chapter.

HarmonyRose


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